Ran across this passage in Tocqueville today (written in the Age of Jackson) that reminded me of a certain someone. "The Americans in their intercourse with strangers appear impatient of the smallest censure and insatiable of praise..." 1/5
"The most slender eulogium is acceptable to them; the most exalted seldom contents them; they unceasingly harass you to extort praise, and if you resist their entreaties they fall to praising themselves..." 2/5
" It would seem as if, doubting their own merit, they wished to have it constantly exhibited before their eyes. Their vanity is not only greedy, but restless & jealous; it will grant nothing, whilst it demands everything, but is ready to beg & to quarrel at the same time..." 3/5
" If I say to an American that the country he lives in is a fine one, "Ay," he replies, "there is not its fellow in the world." If I applaud the freedom which its inhabitants enjoy, he answers, "Freedom is a fine thing, but few nations are worthy to enjoy it..." 4/5
"It is impossible to conceive a more troublesome or more garrulous patriotism; it wearies even those who are disposed to respect it." 5/5
For anyone inclined to go to the original. "He who must be quoted." Alexis de Tocqueville. gutenberg.org/files/816/816-…
