Niall Ferguson Quotes

Quotes about:

• So much of liberalism in its classical sense is taken for granted in the west today and even disrespected. We take freedom for granted, and because of this we don't understand how incredibly vulnerable it is.

  Niall Ferguson

  Taken, Today, West

  "Niall Ferguson: 'Westerners Don't Understand How Vulnerable Freedom Is'". Interview with William Skidelsky, www.theguardian.com. February 20, 2011.

  48 Copy quote

• The law of unintended consequences is the only real law of history.

  Niall Ferguson

  Real, Law, History

  17 Copy quote

• For 500 years the West patented six killer applications that set it apart. The first to download them was Japan. Over the last century, one Asian country after another has downloaded these killer apps- competition, modern science, the rule of law and private property rights, modern medicine, the consumer society and the work ethic. Those six things are the secret sauce of Western civilization.

  Niall Ferguson

  Country, Years, Law

  20 Copy quote

• Empires, essentially, create order. In their absence, you don't end up with lots of happy, little nation-states full of people sitting around campfires singing John Lennon's "Imagine." What you end up with is civil war, anarchy.

  Niall Ferguson

  War, Order, People

  "Imperial Denial". Interview with Nonna Gorilovkskaya, www.motherjones.com. May 21, 2004.

  13 Copy quote

• The West may collapse very suddenly. Complex civilizations do that, because they operate, most of the time, on the edge of chaos.

  Niall Ferguson

  Motivation, Inspiration, Civilization

  "The 6 Killer Apps of Prosperity". TEDGlobal 2011, www.ted.com. July 2011.

  15 Copy quote

• It’s our generation that is witnessing the end of Western predominance. The average American used to be more than 20 times richer than the average Chinese. Now it’s just five times, and soon it will be 2.5 times.

  Niall Ferguson

  Our Generation, Average, Chinese

  "The 6 killer apps of prosperity". Ted Talks, www.ted.com. July, 2011.

  13 Copy quote

• Between 1980 and 2000 the number of patents registered in Israel was 7652 compared with 367 for all the Arab countries combined.

  Niall Ferguson

  Country, Israel, Numbers

  Niall Ferguson (2011). “Civilization: The West and the Rest”, p.101, Penguin

  6 Copy quote

• All empires have depended on local legitimacy and local collaboration; they are not based primarily on coercion. An imperial rule that relies wholly on coercion can't endure. It's too expensive.

  Niall Ferguson

  Collaboration, Coercion, Empires

  "Imperial Denial". Interview with Nonna Gorilovskaya, www.motherjones.com. May 21, 2004.

  12 Copy quote

• If young men have jobs - or the prospects of jobs - they are less likely to take up arms, they are less likely to join the resistance.

  Niall Ferguson

  Jobs, Men, Arms

  "Imperial Denial". Interview with Nonna Gorilovskaya, www.motherjones.com. May 21, 2004.

  10 Copy quote

• As a teacher, my strategy is to encourage questioning. I'm the least authoritarian professor you'll ever meet.

  Niall Ferguson

  Teacher, Strategy, Professors

  "Niall Ferguson: 'The left love being provoked by me ... they think I'm a reactionary imperialist scumbag" By Decca Aitkenhead, www.theguardian.com. April 11, 2011.

  15 Copy quote

• Oral history is a recipe for complete misrepresentation because almost no one tells the truth, even when they intend to.

  Niall Ferguson

  Recipes, Telling The Truth, Misrepresentation

  "This much I know". Interview with Tom Templeton, www.theguardian.com. January 17, 2009.

  9 Copy quote

• American Empire- it is an empire that lacks the drive to export its capital, its people and its culture to those backward regions which need them most urgently and which, if they are neglected, will breed the greatest threats to its security. It is an empire, in short, that dare not speak its name. It is an empire in denial.

  Niall Ferguson

  Names, People, Needs

  Niall Ferguson (2002). “Empire: the rise and demise of the British world order and the lessons for global power”, Basic Books (AZ)

  14 Copy quote

• Today, the average Korean works a thousand hours more a year than the average German. A thousand. ... That is the end of the Great Divergence.

  Niall Ferguson

  Motivation, Inspiration, Average

  "The 6 killer apps of prosperity". Ted conference, www.ted.com. 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• From the earliest days, the Rothschilds appreciated the importance of proximity to politicians, the men who determined not only the extent of budget deficits but also the domestic and foreign policies.

  Niall Ferguson

  Men, World, Determined

  Niall Ferguson (1998). “The House of Rothschild: Money's prophets, 1798-1848”, Viking Press

  4 Copy quote

• It's all very well for us to sit here in the west with our high incomes and cushy lives, and say it's immoral to violate the sovereignty of another state. But if the effect of that is to bring people in that country economic and political freedom, to raise their standard of living, to increase their life expectancy, then don't rule it out.

  Niall Ferguson

  Country, People, Political

  "Niall Ferguson: 'Westerners don't understand how vulnerable freedom is" by William Skidelsky, www.theguardian.com. February 19, 2011.

  16 Copy quote

• To make a living space, there first had to be a killing space.

  Niall Ferguson

  Space, History, Firsts

  13 Copy quote

• No civilization, no matter how mighty it may appear to itself, is indestructible.

  Niall Ferguson

  Civilization, May, Matter

  Niall Ferguson (2011). “Civilization: The West and the Rest”, p.107, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• I think that it is important to be gregarious, and that friendships are not just a leisure pursuit, that they are an integral part of what it is to be human, and one does better work if one has a circle of friends that is active.

  Niall Ferguson

  Thinking, Circles, Important

  14 Copy quote

• The British press has an insatiable appetite for making public things that should be private. It's a prurience that I've never understood.

  Niall Ferguson

  Should, British, Appetite

  "Niall Ferguson: 'Westerners don't understand how vulnerable freedom is" by William Skidelsky, www.theguardian.com. February 19, 2011.

  12 Copy quote

• I think the condition of imperial denial is a handicap because if you do not recognize that you are essentially performing the functions of an empire, you are incapable of learning from the mistakes of past empires.

  Niall Ferguson

  Mistake, Past, Thinking

  "Imperial Denial". Interview with Nonna Gorilovskaya, www.motherjones.com. May 21, 2004.

  4 Copy quote

• The ascent of money has been essential to the ascent of man.

  Niall Ferguson

  Men, Essentials, Ascent

  Niall Ferguson (2008). “The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World”, p.9, Penguin

  15 Copy quote

• My arguments for liberal empire or whatever you want to call it - hegemony, primacy, you name it - are really activated by a sense that the alternatives involve more violence, more repression, more hardship.

  Niall Ferguson

  Names, Hegemony, Alternatives

  "Imperial Denial". Interview with Nonna Gorilovskaya, www.motherjones.com. May 21, 2004.

  7 Copy quote

• A historian is battling all the time to remember as much as possible.

  Niall Ferguson

  Remember, Historian

  5 Copy quote

• In Stalin's Russia racial persecution was often disguised as class warfare. More than 1.5 million members of ethnic minorities died as a result of forced resettlement.

  Niall Ferguson

  Russia, Class, History

  10 Copy quote

• In the financial sector, those whom the gods want to destroy they first teach math.

  Niall Ferguson

  Math, Want, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

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