The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome. De Tocqueville points out that it is at times when passions start to govern human affairs that ideas are most obviously translated into political action. The translation of ideas into action is usually in the hands of people least likely to follow rational motives. Hence, it is that action is often the nemesis of ideas, and sometimes of the men who formulate them. One of the marks of the truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action - the ability to pass directly from thought to action.

vinculum inter ideas et raro opus est recta. cuius ratio est gradus medius fere superatur. de tocqueville ostendit quod tempora in rebus humanis cum hinc satus ad regendum esse ideas omnium qui translati sunt in manifesto politica agendi. actio translationis rationes apud homines minime sequi solet rationem habet. Et ideo actio illa est, quod saepe est Nemesi et ideas, et nunc de illis qui consiliis. unus enim stigmata passionis vigore carere posse obstetricabitis societatis actione - cogitatione potest immediate agere.