'As regards the structure of science, probably the most imposing of human edifices, there is no possible question. It was built in the full light of history, and we can follow its development almost from the very outset down to our own day.... Everything here originates in the individual, not only the materials but the general design of the whole and the detailed sketches as well. Everything, including what is now diffused among all cultured minds and taught even in the primary school, began as the secret of some single mind, whence a little flame, faint and flickering, sent forth its rays, at first only within a narrow compass, and even their encountering many obstructions, but, growing brighter as it spread further, it at length became a brilliant illumination. Now, if it seems plainly evident that science was thus constructed, is no less true that the construction of every dogma, legal code, government, or economic regime was effected in the same manner; and if any doubt be possible with respect to language and ethics, because the obscurity of their origin and the slowness of their transformations remove them from observation through the greater part of their course, is it not highly probable that their evolution follow the same path?' – Gabriel Tarde, Social Laws P.84-85
'This is why any social production having some marked characteristics, yet an industrial good, of verse, a formula, a political idea which has appeared one day somewhere in the corner of the brain, dreams like Alexander of conquering the world, tries to multiply itself by thousands and millions of copies in every place where there exists human beings and will never stop except if it is kept in check by some rival production as ambitious as itself.' – Gabriel Tarde, Monadology and Sociology P.96
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