They are very ready to do good to the people, but they still choose to keep them at arm's length; they think that is sufficient, but they are mistaken.

They might spend fortunes thus without warming the hearts of the population around them;--that population does not ask them for the sacrifice of their money, but of their pride.
It would seem as if every imagination in the United States were upon the stretch to invent means of increasing the wealth and satisfying the wants of the public.

The best-informed inhabitants of each district constantly use their information to discover new truths which may augment the general prosperity; and if they have made any such discoveries, they eagerly surrender them to the mass of the people.
When the vices and weaknesses, frequently exhibited by those who govern in America, are closely examined, the prosperity of the people occasions--but improperly occasions--surprise.

Elected magistrates do not make the American democracy flourish; it flourishes because the magistrates are elective.
It would be unjust to suppose that the patriotism and the zeal which every American displays for the welfare of his fellow-citizens are wholly insincere.

Although private interest directs the greater part of human actions in the United States as well as elsewhere, it does not regulate them all.