# Quote — Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

> The prophecies of Nostradamus consist of upwards of a thousand stanzas, each of four lines, and are to the full as obscure as the oracles of old. They take so great a latitude, both as to time and space, that they are almost sure to be fulfilled somewhere or other in the course of a few centuries.

- Author: [Charles Mackay](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-mackay.md)
- Book: [Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-mackay/extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Mackay_(author)#Extraordinary_Popular_Delusions_and_the_Madness_of_Crowds_(1841)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-mackay/extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds/the-prophecies-of-nostradamus

## More from this book

> 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.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-mackay/extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds/the-over-bearing-insolence.md)

> Nations, like individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity. Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-mackay/extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds/nations-like-individuals.md)

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

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-mackay/extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds/during-seasons-of-great.md)