“American social scientists of a neo-Tocquevillean bent have unearthed empirical evidence that the quality of public life and the performance of social institutions (and not only in America) are indeed powerfully influenced by norms and networks of civic engagement.” (2) Putnam
“But among democratic peoples all the citizens are independent and weak. They can do hardly anything for themselves, and none of them is in a position to foce his fellows to help him. They would all therefore find themselves helpless if they did not learn to help each other voluntarily”(514). TQ
“Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep. ..The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion…To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake…We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep”(81). Thoreau, Walden
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