We see societies establishing themselves,
nations forming themselves,
which in turn dominate over other nations or become subject to them.
Empires rise and fall;
laws, forms of government, one succeeding another;
the arts, the sciences, are discovered and are cultivated;
sometimes retarded and sometimes accelerated in their progress,
they pass from one region to another.

Self-interest, ambition, vainglory,
perpetually change the scene of the world, inundate the earth with blood.
Yet in the midst of their ravages manners are gradually softened,
the human mind takes enlightenment,
separate nations draw nearer to each other,
commerce and policy connect at last all parts of the globe,
and the total mass of the human race,
by the alternations of calm and agitation,
of good conditions and of bad,
marches always, although slowly,
towards still higher perfection…

- Jacques Turgot