Adam Ferguson

“Every step and every movement of the multitude, even in what are termed enlightened ages, are made with equal blindness to the future; and nations stumble upon establishments, which are indeed the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design.”

“The love of country is a passion which has been found to prevail in every state of society.”

“Like the winds that come we know not whence and blow whither they list, the forms of society are derived from an obscure and distant origin; they arise, long before the date of philosophy, from the instincts, not from the speculations, of men.”

“The bulk of mankind are, like other parts of the creation, born to perish.”

“To the ancient Greek, the term barbarian denoted a foreigner, and implied a contempt of his manners and his capacity.”

“Liberty or freedom is not, as the origin of the name may seem to imply, an exemption from all restraints, but rather the most effectual applications of every just restraint to all members of a free state.”

“We speak of art as distinguished from nature; but art itself is natural to man.”

“He who has never struggled with adversity knows nothing of his own strength.”

“Mankind are to be taken in groups, as they have always subsisted. The history of the individual is but a detail of the sentiments and thoughts of his age. The history of mankind is a history of the species.”

“The titles of fellow-citizen and countryman, unopposed to those of alien and foreigner, would have no meaning.”