Adam Ferguson Quotes on Knowledge
Adam Ferguson was an 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and historian, often regarded as one of the founders of modern sociology. This page collects quotes attributed to Adam Ferguson on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Adam Ferguson:
“Mankind, in following the present sense of their minds, in striving to remove inconveniencies, or to gain apparent and contiguous advantages, arrive at ends which even their imagination could not anticipate.”
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Attributed to Adam Ferguson:
“If nations actually borrow from their neighbours, they probably borrow only what they are nearly in a condition to have invented themselves.”
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“Mankind have always wandered or settled, agreed or quarrelled, in troops and companies.”
PART I, SECTION III. -
“PART I, SECTION III.”
Mankind have always wandered or settled, agreed or quarrelled, in troops and companies. -
“We are fond of distinctions; we place ourselves in opposition, and quarrel under the denominations of faction and party, without any material subject of controversy.”
PART I, SECTION IV. -
“Men are to be estimated, not from what they know, but from what they are able to perform.”
PART I, SECTION V. -
“Man, in his animal capacity, is qualified to subsist in every climate.”
PART III, SECTION I. -
“PART III, SECTION I.”
Man, in his animal capacity, is qualified to subsist in every climate. -
“…if we intend to pursue the history of our species in its further attainments, we may soon enter on subjects which will confine our observation to more narrow limits. The genius of political wisdom and civil arts appears to have chosen his seats in particular tracts of the earth, and to have selected his favourites in particular races of men.”
PART III, SECTION I.