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

— Adam Ferguson An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)

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More quotes by Adam Ferguson

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

An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)

Men are to be estimated, not from what they know, but from what they are able to perform.

An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)

Mankind have always wandered or settled, agreed or quarrelled, in troops and companies.

An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)

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

An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)

Theory consists in referring particular operations to the principles, or general laws, under which they are comprehended; or in referring particular effects to the causes from which they proceed.

Institutes of Moral Philosophy (1769)

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1973)

History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

James Joyce Ulysses (1922)

If we don’t care about our past we can’t have very much hope for our future.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past, — so good night!

Thomas Jefferson

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Adam Ferguson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.