Alexis de Tocqueville quote about poetry from Democracy in America - Nothing conceivable is so petty, so insipid, so crowded with paltry interests, in one word so anti-poetic, as the life of a man in the United States.

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“ Nothing conceivable is so petty, so insipid, so crowded with paltry interests, in one word so anti-poetic, as the life of a man in the United States. ”
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1840). copy citation

Author	Alexis de Tocqueville
Source	Democracy in America
Topic	poetry America
Date	1840
Language	English
Reference
Note	Translated by Henry Reeve
Weblink	http://www.gutenberg.org/files/816/816-h/816-h.htm

Context

“This magnificent image of themselves does not meet the gaze of the Americans at intervals only; it may be said to haunt every one of them in his least as well as in his most important actions, and to be always flitting before his mind. Nothing conceivable is so petty, so insipid, so crowded with paltry interests, in one word so anti-poetic, as the life of a man in the United States. But amongst the thoughts which it suggests there is always one which is full of poetry, and that is the hidden nerve which gives vigor to the frame.
In aristocratic ages each people, as well as each individual, is prone to stand separate and aloof from all others.” source

Original quote

“On ne saurait rien concevoir de si petit, de si terne, de si rempli de misérables intérêts, de si antipoétique, en un mot, que la vie d'un homme aux États-Unis” Alexis de Tocqueville, De la démocratie en Amérique