Request for help on a quote: "Revolutions, before they happen,..."

Gerald Cohen gcohen at MST.EDU
Thu Aug 5 01:22:37 UTC 2010


Today I received a request for verification, if possible, on the following
quote, supposedly by Alexis de Tocqueville:

³Revolutions, before they happen, appear to be impossible and after they
occur they appeared to have been inevitable.²

Did he in fact say this? A check of Google Books shows just a single hit:

_Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Energy and Society_:
Clicking to his last slide, titled "It Is Easy to Miss an Approaching
Crisis," Simmons quotes Alexis de Tocqueville: "Revolutions, before they
happen, appear to be impossible and after they occur they appeared to have
been inevitable."

Only one hit? Is this possible if Tocqueville actually said it?

 Any help would be very gratefully received.

Gerald Cohen

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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