Men are to be estimated, not from what they know, but from what they a — Adam Ferguson

"Love is an affection which carries the attention of the mind beyond itself, and is the sense of a relation to some fellow creature as to its object."

"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 attainments of the parent do not descend in the blood of his children, nor is the progress of man to be considered as a physical mutation of the species."

"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."

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