Adam Ferguson Quotes on Politics
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 politics, 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:
“Society is more than a mere convenience; it is the natural element in which our faculties most truly develop.”
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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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Attributed to Adam Ferguson:
“The boasted refinements of polished ages are not divested of danger.”
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Attributed to Adam Ferguson:
“Without the rivalship of nations, and the practice of war, civil society itself could scarcely have found an object, or a form.”