Die Natur des Menschen bleibt immer dieselbe; im zehntausendsten Jahr der Welt wird er mit Leidenschaften geboren, wie er im zweiten derselben mit Le… - Johann Gottfried Herder

All our science calculates with abstracted individual external marks, which do not touch the inner existence of any single thing

Jeder liebt sein Land, seine Sitten, seine Sprache, sein Weib, seine Kinder, nicht weil sie die besten auf der Welt, sondern weil sie die bewährten Seinigen sind, und er in ihnen sich und seine Mühe selbst liebt.

— “The system of trade!” The greatness and uniqueness of the project is obvious! Three continents devastated and regimented by us, and we depopulated by them, emasculated, sunk in luxury, exploitation, and death: what a rich and happy deal!
Who could do other than to claim his share in the great whirling cloud that is sucking the life out of Europe, than to press for his place within it and to deliver his own children, if not another man’s, to it as the greatest man of trade?
The old name, shepherd of the peoples, has been changed to monopolist, and when the great cloud will one day burst and unleash a hundred tempests, then help us the great god Mammon, whom we are all serving now!