Baltasar Gracián on the wisdom of crowds

Take no pleasure in the wonder of the mob, for ignorance never gets beyond wonder.  While vulgar folly wonders, wisdom watches for the deception.

~ Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

(This was the quote of the week on the April 8, 2021 episode of the Stansberry Investor Hour, hosted by Dan Ferris.)

Charles Mackay on speculative folly

Every age has its peculiar folly; some scheme, project, or fantasy into which it plunges, spurred on by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation.

~ Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841)

(Cited by Randall Forsyth, "WallStreetBets Might Be New, but Bubbles And Busts Are Not," Barron's, January 30, 2021.)

Bernard Baruch on investor folly

The main purpose of the stock market is to make fools of as many men as possible.

~ Bernard Baruch

Mark Twain on fooling people

It's easier to fool people than it is to convince them they have been fooled.

~ Mark Twain

Dan Simmons on the folly of war

People who ignore history's lessons in the ultimate folly of war are forced to do more than relive them... they may be forced to die by them.

~ Dan Simmons, author

Charles Mackay on learning from the mistakes of the past

Let us not, in the pride of our superior knowledge, turn with contempt from the follies of our predecessors. The study of the errors into which great minds have fallen in the pursuit of truth can never be uninstructive.

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

Bill Bonner on the upward (bumpy) slope of human progress

When it comes to science and technology, man learns.  When it comes to love, war, and finance, he makes the same mistakes over and over again.

~ Bill Bonner

Herbert Spencer on paternalism and moral hazard

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.

~ Herbert Spencer, Essays (1891)

Barbara Tuchman on folly in government

Personal self-interest belongs to every time and becomes folly when it dominates government.

~ Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly, Page 126.

(Barbara Tuchman was a distinguished American historian of the 20th Century. The March of Folly's theme is the pursuit of policy contrary to self-interest using examples from the Battle of Troy, the Renaissance popes, the British loss of North America and ultimately America betraying herself in Vietnam.)