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

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Several days ago I expressed skepticism that a quote attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville really came from him. There just doesn't seem to be evidence anywhere that he actually said it.  For example, the excellent Yale Book of Quotations has various Tocqueville quotes but not the one which says: "Revolutions, before they happen, appear to be impossible, and after they occur they appear to have been inevitable."  
     It looks like this is just one more example of something that could have plausibly been said by someone (in this case, Tocqueville) but actually wasn't. 
-----Gerald Cohen
________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Gerald Cohen
Sent: Wed 8/4/2010 8:22 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Request for help on a quote: "Revolutions, before they happen,..."

               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 appear 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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