“The first paradox of Illuminism, then, was that it was a network that craved an elaborate hierarchical structure, even as it inveighed against existing hierarchies. In his 1782 ‘Address to the newly promoted Illuminati dirigenti’, Weishaupt set out his worldview.… — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
“I wrote this book because I had formed a strong impression that the people currently living were paying insufficient attention to the dead.” — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
“Consider this: the US economy created 2.4 million jobs in the three years beginning in June 2009. In the same period, 3.3 million Americans… — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
I think the rise of quantitative econometrics and a highly mathematical approach to risk management was the obverse of a decline in interest in… — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
“Is it better today to be in a network, which gives you influence, than in a hierarchy, which gives you power?” — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
As a teacher, my strategy is to encourage questioning. I'm the least authoritarian professor you'll ever meet. — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
Ask me not, 'Are you rightwing,' but ask me 'Are you a committed believer in individual freedom, the values of the enlightenment?' Then, yeah,… — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
“Many historians still tend to assume that the spread of an idea or an ideology is a function of its inherent content in relation… — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
“the twentieth century ran a series of experiments, imposing quite different institutions on two sets of Germans (in West and East), two sets of… — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
“Historians are not scientists. They cannot (and should not even trying to) establish universal laws of social or political "physics" with reliable predictive powers.… — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
You really struggle to be a successful empire if you are also the world's biggest debtor. — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
“One difficulty is that we cannot always reconstruct the past thoughts of these non-Western peoples, for not all of them existed in civilizations with… — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
If young men have jobs - or the prospects of jobs - they are less likely to take up arms, they are less likely… — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
