# Quote — Niall Ferguson, Civilization

> It was an idea that made the crucial difference between British and Iberian America – an idea about the way people should govern themselves. Some people make the mistake of calling that idea ‘democracy’ and imagining that any country can adopt it merely by holding elections. In reality, democracy was the capstone of an edifice that had as its foundation the rule of law – to be precise, the sanctity of individual freedom and the security of private property rights, ensured by representative, constitutional government.

- Author: [Niall Ferguson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/niall-ferguson.md)
- Book: [Civilization](https://www.leafyquotes.com/niall-ferguson/civilization.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Niall_Ferguson#Civilization:_The_West_and_the_Rest_(2011)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/niall-ferguson/civilization/it-was-an-idea

## More from this book

> Was there something distinctive about American civil society that gave democracy a better chance than in France, as Tocqueville argued? Was the already centralized French state more likely to produce a Napoleon than the decentralized United States? We cannot be sure. But it is not unreasonable to ask how long the US constitution would have lasted if the United States had suffered the same military and economic strains that swept away the French constitution of 1791.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/niall-ferguson/civilization/was-there-something.md)

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

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/niall-ferguson/civilization/no-civilization-no-matter.md)

> The consumer society is so all-pervasive today that it is easy to assume it has always existed. Yet in reality it is one of the more recent innovations that propelled the West ahead of the Rest. Its most striking characteristic is its seemingly irresistible appeal... The result is one of the greatest paradoxes of modern history: that an economic system designed to offer infinite choice to the individual has ended up homogenizing humanity.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/niall-ferguson/civilization/the-consumer-society.md)