Tocqueville-His view of Muhammad and Admiration for America...

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville
You all remember this from Alexis de Tocqueville:
America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good America will cease to be great.-
I have listed two others-AWESOME--
the link above will give you more from this Admirer of the New US..
Wouldn't it be great if our ed system was such that it would produce 'log cabin' citizens w/ Shakespeare on their shelves..as a norm and- don't get me started on the Muslims- he wrote the quote about them 200 years ago!!
1. Muhammad brought down from heaven and put into the Koran not religious doctrines only, but political maxims, criminal and civil laws, and scientific theories. The Gospels, on the other hand, deal only with the general relations between man and God and between man and man. Beyond that, they teach nothing and do not oblige people to believe anything. That alone, among a thousand reasons, is enough to show that Islam will not be able to hold its power long in ages of enlightenment and democracy, while Christianity is destined to reign in such ages, as in all others.

2. There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.

3. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her public school system and her institutions of learning, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good America will cease to be great