Tao Te Ching
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
A wealth of early insights into crowd psychology, religious manias, moral epidemics of group-think and covering such diverse topics as the crusades, economic bubbles, the witch trials, haunted houses, alchemy, relics, tulip mania, duels, prophecy, the Railway Mania of the 1840s, and the South Sea Bubble; this book helps inoculate the few from becoming a victim of the many. Because of reading it, at least one major investor sold all of his stock just before the 1929 financial crash. Still in print, read, and considered one of the “Six Classics of Economics;” this tribute to our Apostles of Doubt lineage confirms Gracian’s aphorism that “All fools are fully convinced.”
Quotes from Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
“Nobody blamed the credulity and avarice of the people, – the degrading lust of gain, which had swallowed up every nobler quality in the national character… These things were never mentioned.”
Chapters:
18. The Sick Society
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“An arrow may fly through the air and leave no trace; but an ill thought leaves a trail like a serpent.”
Chapters:
43. No Effort, No Trace
63. Easy as Hard
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“Credulity is always greatest in times of calamity. Prophecies of all sorts are rife on such occasions, and are readily believed.”
Chapters:
38. Fruit Over Flowers
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“Men, it has been well said, think in herds but it will be seen that they go mad in herds. They only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”
Chapters:
26. The Still Rule the Restless
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“Money has often been a cause of the delusion of multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper.”
Chapters:
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“Nations, like individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity. Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later.”
Chapters:
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“Time sanctifies everything it doesn’t destroy. The mere fact of anything being spared by this great foe makes it a favorite with us, who are sure to fall his victims.”
Chapters:
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