1. Citations
  2. Auteurs
  3. Adam Ferguson

Adam Ferguson citations

Adam Ferguson, né le 20 juin 1723 à Logierait dans le Perthshire, mort à St Andrews le 22 février 1816, est un philosophe et historien écossais. Il est un des membres du mouvement dit "Les Lumières écossaises", avec notamment Thomas Reid, David Hume et Adam Smith.

Il est surtout connu pour son ouvrage publié en 1767 Essai sur l'Histoire de la Société civile. Dans ce livre, il développe une théorie de la sociabilité qui s'oppose à celles développées par les philosophes Thomas Hobbes et Jean-Jacques Rousseau, tout en étant critique de celles développées par David Hume et Adam Smith. Proche de Rousseau dans sa critique de l'État commercial, il développe une théorie de l'histoire moins optimiste que celle de Voltaire et de Smith, mais plus que celle avancée par Rousseau dans le Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes.

✵ 20. juin 1723 – 22. février 1816
Adam Ferguson photo
Adam Ferguson: 11 citations0 J'aime

Adam Ferguson: Citations en anglais

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

Help us translate this quote

Adam Ferguson livre An Essay on the History of Civil Society

PART III, SECTION I.
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.”

Help us translate this quote

Adam Ferguson livre An Essay on the History of Civil Society

PART IV, SECTION II.
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)

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

Help us translate this quote

Adam Ferguson livre An Essay on the History of Civil Society

PART I, SECTION III.
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)

“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.”

Help us translate this quote

Adam Ferguson livre An Essay on the History of Civil Society

PART I, SECTION I.
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)

“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.”

Help us translate this quote

Adam Ferguson livre An Essay on the History of Civil Society

PART I, SECTION II.
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)

“…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.”

Help us translate this quote

Adam Ferguson livre An Essay on the History of Civil Society

PART III, SECTION I.
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)

“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.”

Help us translate this quote

Adam Ferguson livre An Essay on the History of Civil Society

PART I, SECTION IV.
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)

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

Help us translate this quote

Adam Ferguson livre An Essay on the History of Civil Society

PART II, SECTION I.
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.”

Help us translate this quote

Adam Ferguson

Introduction, Section IV, Of Theory, p. 7.
Institutes of Moral Philosophy (1769)

“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.”

Help us translate this quote

Adam Ferguson livre An Essay on the History of Civil Society

PART III, SECTION II.
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”

Help us translate this quote

Adam Ferguson livre An Essay on the History of Civil Society

PART I, SECTION V.
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)

Auteurs similaires

Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach photo
Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach9
savant français et philosophe matérialiste, d'origine allem… None
Adam Smith photo
Adam Smith22
philosophe et économiste écossais (1723-1790) None
Francis Bacon photo
Francis Bacon12
homme d’État et philosophe anglais None
Emmanuel Kant photo
Emmanuel Kant12
philosophe allemand None
John Milton photo
John Milton5
poète, essayiste et pamphlétaire anglais None
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg14
écrivain et physicien allemand None
Montesquieu photo
Montesquieu17
écrivain et philosophe français None
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais photo
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais20
écrivain, musicien, homme d'affaires et poète français None
Nicolas Machiavel photo
Nicolas Machiavel53
philosophe florentin None
Martin Luther photo
Martin Luther2
théologien allemand, père du protestantisme None