It is true that men themselves made this world of nations. . . but this world without doubt has issued from a mind often diverse, at times quite contrary, and always superior to the particular ends that men had proposed to themselves.
Source: The New Science, Conclusion, para. 1108, ed. 1744; tr. 1984.
-- Giambattista Vico, (Jun 23 1668-1744), Italian philosopher; He is recognized today as a forerunner of cultural anthropology, or ethnology.