Quotes

John Mackay's The Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness Of Crowds is widely considered the place to begin one's study of economic bubbles and societies run amok.

While subsequent researchers have accused Mackay of exaggeration with regards to the Holland's famed "Tulip Mania" of the 1630s, the work remains highly regarded by social scientists of all stripes, from the economists to the social shrinks.

Best of all it's a fun read as Mackay knows how to tell a story.

Money, again, has often been a cause of the delusion of the multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper.

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 then one by one.

In reading The History of Nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities, their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.

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. As the man looks back to the days of his childhood and his youth, and recalls to his mind the strange notions and false opinions that swayed his actions at the time, that he may wonder at them; so should society, for its edification, look back to the opinions which governed ages that fled.

Of all the offspring of Time, Error is the most ancient, and is so old and familiar an acquaintance, that Truth, when discovered, comes upon most of us like an intruder, and meets the intruder's welcome.

An arrow may fly through the air and leave no trace; but an ill thought leaves a trail like a serpent.

It's probably English from about 1936.

Click the quote for the story.

From today's installment of Richard Russell's Dow Theory Letter.

Below are the last day of the year quotes for gold.

2000 -- $273.60
2001 -- $279.00
2002 -- $348.20
2003 -- $416.10
2004 -- $438.40
2005 -- $518.90
2006 -- $638.00
2007 -- $838.00
2008 -- $889.00 
2009 -- $1096.50
2010 -- $1421.40
2011 -- $1566.80

This year's close for gold marks the 11th year for higher year end gold closing.

To my knowledge this is the longest bull market of any kind in history in which each year's close was above the previous year.

This fabulous bull market will not end with a whisper and a fizzle. I continue to believe that the upside gold crescendo of this bull market lies ahead.

We are watching market history.

We're going to be slowed down a bit over the next couple of weeks as I have agreed to take on kind of an open ended project and will be resetting up my setup yet again.

The minions as usual are a lot like the cops ... never around when you need em.

Most of us become parents long before we have stopped being children.

No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why.

There are so many things that we wish we had done yesterday, so few that we feel like doing today.

A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles.

For the happiest life, days should be rigorously planned, nights left open to chance.

Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent.

If I knew what I was so anxious about, I wouldn't be so anxious.

The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.

Courage can't see around corners but goes around them anyway.

If you are brave too often, people will come to expect it of you.

Love is the silent saying and saying of a single name.

In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing.

If you made a list of reasons why any couple got married, and another list of the reasons for their divorce, you'd have a hell of a lot of overlapping.

Learning too soon our limitations, we never learn our powers.

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man.

Our strength is often composed of the weakness that we're damned if we're going to show.

The head never rules the heart, but just becomes its partner in crime.

It's the most unhappy people who most fear change.

The proud man can learn humility, but he will be proud of it.

We'd all like a reputation for generosity, and we'd all like to buy it cheap.

What you can't get out of, get into wholeheartedly.

What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want.

Youth is not enough. And love is not enough. And success is not enough. And, if we could achieve it, enough would not be enough.