When I first came to Oxford, I struggled to feel comfortable in an Anglican, public school-dominated institution. Niall Ferguson More Quotes by Niall Ferguson More Quotes From Niall Ferguson 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 west taken today As a teacher, my strategy is to encourage questioning. I'm the least authoritarian professor you'll ever meet. Niall Ferguson professors strategy teacher 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 political country people 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 law country years 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 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 circles important thinking 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 chinese average 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 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 The law of unintended consequences is the only real law of history. Niall Ferguson real law history To make a living space, there first had to be a killing space. Niall Ferguson space history firsts 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 appetite british should 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 empires collaboration coercion In the old days it would have been a relatively simple matter to have checked Hitler's territorial ambitions. All you'd have needed would have been the 1914 combination of Britain, France and Russia. Indeed, if such an alliance had acted decisively to defend Czechoslovakia in 1938, Hitler might even have been overthrown by his own military. But it was not to be. Niall Ferguson ambition military simple I can't imagine having a conversation about 'Celebrity Big Brother' in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Niall Ferguson massachusetts imagine brother 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 arms jobs men The ascent of money has been essential to the ascent of man. Niall Ferguson ascent essentials men If the financial system has a defect, it is that it reflects and magnifies what we human beings are like. Money amplifies our tendency to overreact, to swing from exuberance when things are going well to deep depression when they go wrong. Booms and busts are products, at root, of our emotional volatility. Niall Ferguson swings emotional roots In the financial sector, those whom the gods want to destroy they first teach math. Niall Ferguson want math firsts Between 1980 and 2000 the number of patents registered in Israel was 7652 compared with 367 for all the Arab countries combined. Niall Ferguson israel numbers country
