“ Those who cultivate the sciences amongst a democratic people are always afraid of losing their way in visionary speculation. ”
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1840). copy citation
Author | Alexis de Tocqueville |
---|---|
Source | Democracy in America |
Topic | speculation science |
Date | 1840 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by Henry Reeve |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/816/816-h/816-h.htm |
Context
“it gives him, in all things, a taste for the tangible and the real, a contempt for tradition and for forms. These general tendencies are principally discernible in the peculiar subject of this chapter. Those who cultivate the sciences amongst a democratic people are always afraid of losing their way in visionary speculation. They mistrust systems; they adhere closely to facts and the study of facts with their own senses. As they do not easily defer to the mere name of any fellow-man, they are never inclined to rest upon any man's authority;”
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