Charles Mackay on the South Sea bubble

Nobody seemed to imagine that the nation itself was as culpable as the South Sea Company.  Nobody blamed the credulity and avarice of the people — the degrading lust of gain... or the infatuation which had made the multitude run their heads with such frantic eagerness into the net held out for them by scheming projectors.  These things were never mentioned. 

~ Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds