# Quote — Niall Ferguson, Civilization

> Protestantism made the West not only work, but also save and read. The Industrial Revolution was indeed a product of technological innovation and consumption. But it also required an increase in the intensity and duration of work, combined with the accumulation of capital through saving and investment. Above all, it depended on the accumulation of human capital. The literacy that Protestantism promoted was vital to all of this. On reflection, we would do better to talk about the Protestant word ethic.

- 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/protestantism-made-the

## 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)