Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more did I perceive the great political consequences resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country. –Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835
Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian best known for his book Democracy in America. In Democracy in America, published in 1835, Tocqueville wrote of America and its growing democratic order. He saw democracy as an equation that balanced liberty and equality, concern for the individual as well as the community.
“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. –1 Corinthians 10:23-24
America grew and thrived precisely because of that principle.