AFTER the general idea of virtue, I know no higher principle than that of right; or rather these two ideas are united in one. The idea of right is simply that of virtue introduced into the political world. It was the idea of right that enabled men to define anarchy and tyranny, and that taught them how to be independent without arrogance, and to obey without servility. The man who submits to violence is debased by his compliance; but when he submits to that right of authority that he acknowledges in a fellow creature, he rises in some measure above the person who gives the command.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume 1.
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Alexis de Tocqueville
