"Like the winds that we come, we know not whence, and blow whither soever they list, the forces of society are derived from an obscure and distant origin. They arise before the date of philosophy, from the instincts, not the speculations of men"
About this Quote
The subtext is a direct shot at Enlightenment hubris, especially the rationalist fantasy that institutions can be designed from first principles. By insisting these forces “arise before the date of philosophy,” he positions thought as a late-arriving narrator, not the prime mover. Philosophy doesn’t create society; it offers postmortems and just-so stories. What actually builds the world is “instincts” - habit, imitation, rivalry, fear, status-seeking, cooperation under pressure. That’s a proto-social-science move: he’s describing emergent order before the vocabulary existed.
Context sharpens the edge. Writing in a Britain remade by commerce, empire, and early industrialization, Ferguson watched older bonds dissolve and new systems harden without anyone voting on them. His point isn’t anti-intellectual; it’s anti-overconfident. Treating society as a product of “speculations” invites the reformer’s classic mistake: mistaking the map for the terrain, then bulldozing the terrain to match the map. The rhetorical trick is that he makes humility feel like realism, not resignation.
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Ferguson, Adam. (2026, February 17). Like the winds that we come, we know not whence, and blow whither soever they list, the forces of society are derived from an obscure and distant origin. They arise before the date of philosophy, from the instincts, not the speculations of men. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/like-the-winds-that-we-come-we-know-not-whence-108515/
Chicago Style
Ferguson, Adam. "Like the winds that we come, we know not whence, and blow whither soever they list, the forces of society are derived from an obscure and distant origin. They arise before the date of philosophy, from the instincts, not the speculations of men." FixQuotes. February 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/like-the-winds-that-we-come-we-know-not-whence-108515/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Like the winds that we come, we know not whence, and blow whither soever they list, the forces of society are derived from an obscure and distant origin. They arise before the date of philosophy, from the instincts, not the speculations of men." FixQuotes, 17 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/like-the-winds-that-we-come-we-know-not-whence-108515/. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.
