Nations, like individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity. Punishment is sure to overtake… — Charles Mackay

The over-bearing insolence of ignorant men, who had arisen to sudden wealth by successful gambling, made men of true gentility of mind and manners blush that gold should have power to raise the unworthy in the scale of society.

During seasons of great pestilence, men have often believed the prophecies of crazed fanatics, that the end of the world was come.

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.