Niall Ferguson Quotes

United Kingdom, Historian
April 18, 1962

Niall Campbell Ferguson (/ˈniːl/) is a British historian and conservative political commentator. He was a senior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford and is a visiting professor at the New College of the Humanities. He is also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Before Stanford, he was the Laurence Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University.

Also known as Political Commentator

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

Niall Ferguson
The ascent of money has been essential to the ascent of man.

Niall Ferguson
- Money
- Man
- Ascent

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
- Job
- Resistance
- Prospects
No civilization, no matter how mighty it may appear to itself, is indestructible.

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

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

Niall Ferguson
- Teach
- Math
- Sector
The law of unintended consequences is the only real law of history.

Niall Ferguson
- History
- Law
- Consequences
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

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

Niall Ferguson
- Space
- Living
- Killing
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