Quote #5
Men are to be estimated, not from what they know, but from what they are able to perform
More from Adam Ferguson
- We are fond of distinctions; we place ourselves in opposition, and quarrel under the denominations of faction and party, without any materi…
- The history of mankind is confined within a limited period, and from every quarter brings an intimation that human affairs have had a begin…
- Mankind have always wandered or settled, agreed or quarrelled, in troops and companies.
- Man, in his animal capacity, is qualified to subsist in every climate.
- 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 it…
- :if we intend to pursue the history of our species in its further attainments, we may soon enter on subjects which will confine our observa…
- 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 mutati…
- Every step and every movement of the multitude, even in what are termed enlightened ages, are made with equal blindness to the future; and …