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Private Vices by the dextrous Management of a skilful Politician may be turned into Publick Benefits.

— Bernard Mandeville The Fable of the Bees (1714)

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Capitalism

More quotes by Bernard Mandeville

Knowledge both enlarges and multiplies our Desires, and the fewer things a Man wishes for, the more easily his Necessities may be supply'd.

The Fable of the Bees (1714)

Pride and Vanity have built more Hospitals than all the Virtues together.

The Fable of the Bees (1714)

We seldom call any body lazy, but such as we reckon inferior to us, and of whom we expect some Service.

The Fable of the Bees (1714)

They put off hearings wilfully,
To finger the refreshing fee.

The Fable of the Bees (1714)

If Courtezans and Strumpets were to be prosecuted with as much Rigour as some silly People would have it, what Locks or Bars would be sufficient to preserve the Honour of our Wives and Daughters?

The Fable of the Bees (1714)

All Bernard Mandeville quotes →

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I have no doubt that the revolution will triumph. The people of the world will prevail, seize power, seize the means of production, wipe out racism, capitalism.

Huey P. Newton Revolutionary Suicide (1973)

The most obvious negative feature of capitalism is that it can produce private monopolies that restrict output and thereby harm consumers.

Dennis Mueller The Oxford Handbook of Capitalism (2012)

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

Winston Churchill

Capitalism has neither the capacity, nor the moral, nor the ethics, nor the will to solve the problems of poverty.

Fidel Castro

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Bernard Mandeville (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.