Men are not apt to change their characters by agglomeration; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with the consciousness of their strength.
 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835). copy citation

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Author Alexis de Tocqueville
Source Democracy in America
Topic strength patience
Date 1835
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Henry Reeve
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/815/815-h/815-h.htm

Context

“A majority taken collectively may be regarded as a being whose opinions, and most frequently whose interests, are opposed to those of another being, which is styled a minority. If it be admitted that a man, possessing absolute power, may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should a majority not be liable to the same reproach? Men are not apt to change their characters by agglomeration; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with the consciousness of their strength. *c And for these reasons I can never willingly invest any number of my fellow-creatures with that unlimited authority which I should refuse to any one of them. c [ No one will assert that a people cannot forcibly wrong another people;” source