Fyodor Dostoevsky. Diary of a writer (№ 423412)

Where, if so, can the ideal of a civil order in human society come from? But follow it historically, and you will immediately see where it comes from. You will see that it is the only product of the moral self-improvement of units, it begins with it, and that it was so from time immemorial and will remain forever. At the beginning of every nation, every nationality, the moral idea always preceded the birth of nationality, for it also created it.