Quotes from 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 strength of a nation is derived from the character, not from the wealth, nor from the multitude of its people.

1]In every commercial state, notwithstanding any pretension to equal rights, the exaltation of a few must depress the many. 2]Man, in his animal capacity, is qualified to subsist in every climate. 3]The history of mankind is confined within a limited period, and from every quarter brings an intimation that human affairs have had a beginning.

we employ so many of our early years, under the rod, to acquire, what it is not expected we should retain beyond the threshold of the school;

Whole bodies of men are sometimes infected with an epidemical weakness of the head, or corruption of heart, by which they become unfit for the stations they occupy, and threaten the states they compose, however flourishing, with the prospect of decay, and ruin.

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

Man, in his animal capacity, is qualified to subsist in every climate.

The artist finds, that the more he can confine his attention to a particular part of any work, his productions are the more perfect, and grow under his hands in the greater quantities.

The history of mankind is confined within a limited period, and from every quarter brings an intimation that human affairs have had a beginning.

In every commercial state, notwithstanding any pretension to equal rights, the exaltation of a few must depress the many.

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.