WIST Quotations

Mackay, Charles -- Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “Fortune-Telling” (1841)

Dave — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 16:03:22 +0000

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.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “Fortune-Telling” (1841)
(Source)

Mackay, Charles -- Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “Modern Prophecies” (1841)

Dave — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 14:41:00 +0000

During seasons of great pestilence, men have often believed the prophecies of crazed fanatics, that the end of the world was come. Credulity is always greatest in times of calamity.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “Modern Prophecies” (1841)
(Source)

Mackay, Charles -- Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “Popular Follies of Great Cities” (1841)

Dave — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 23:37:41 +0000

He who walks through a great city to find subjects for weeping, may find plenty at every corner to wring his heart; but let such a man walk on his course, and enjoy his grief alone—we are not of those who would accompany him. The miseries of us poor earth-dwellers gain no alleviation from the sympathy of those who merely hunt them out to be pathetic over them. The weeping philosopher too often impairs his eyesight by his woe, and becomes unable from his tears to see the remedies for the evils which he deplores. Thus it will often be found that the man of no tears is the truest philanthropist, as he is the best physician who wears a cheerful face, even in the worst of cases.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “Popular Follies of Great Cities” (1841)
(Source)

Mackay, Charles -- Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “The Alchymists” (1841)

Dave — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:33:21 +0000

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 that time, that he may wonder at them; so should society, for its edification, look back to the opinions which governed the ages fled. He is but a superficial thinker who would despise and refuse to hear of them merely because they are absurd. No man is so wise but that he may learn some wisdom from his past errors, either of thought or action; and no society has made such advances as to be capable of no improvement from the retrospect of its past folly and credulity.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “The Alchymists” (1841)
(Source)

Mackay, Charles -- Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “The Crusades” (1841)

Dave — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 15:18:52 +0000

Every age has its peculiar folly; some scheme, project, or phantasy into which it plunges, spurred on either by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation. Failing in these, it has some madness, to which it is goaded by political or religious causes, or both combined.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “The Crusades” (1841)
(Source)

Mackay, Charles -- Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “The South-Sea Bubble” (1841)

Dave — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 15:43:22 +0000

The intrigues of unworthy courtiers to gain the favour of still more unworthy kings, or the records of murderous battles and sieges, have been dilated on, and told over and over again, with all the eloquence of style and all the charms of fancy; while the circumstances which have most deeply affected the morals and welfare of the people have been passed over with but slight notice, as dry and dull, and capable of neither warmth nor colouring.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “The South-Sea Bubble” (1841)
(Source)

Mackay, Charles -- Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “The South-Sea Bubble” (1841)

Dave — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 15:37:57 +0000

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

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “The South-Sea Bubble” (1841)
(Source)

Mackay, Charles -- Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Preface (1841)

Dave — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 15:08:30 +0000

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.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Preface (1841)
(Source)

Mackay, Charles -- Poem (1846-01-22), “The Good Time Coming,” st. 1 , London Daily News

Dave — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 18:05:42 +0000

Cannon-balls may aid the truth,
But thought’s a weapon stronger;
We’ll win our battles by its aid; —
Wait a little longer.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Poem (1846-01-22), “The Good Time Coming,” st. 1 , London Daily News
(Source)

Originally published under the title "Wait a Little Longer." First collected in Voices from the Crowd and Other Poems (1846).

Mackay, Charles -- Poem (1847), “Eternal Justice,” st. 4

Dave — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 15:50:04 +0000

Keep, Galileo, to thy thought,
And nerve thy soul to bear;
They may gloat o’er the senseless words they wring
From the pangs of thy despair:
They may veil their eyes, but they cannot hide
The sun’s meridian glow;
The heel of a priest may tread thee down,
And a tyrant work thee woe;
But never a truth has been destroyed:
They may curse it, and call it crime;
Pervert and betray, or slander and slay
Its teachers for a time.
But the sunshine aye shall light the sky,
As round and round we run;
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
And justice shall be done.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Poem (1847), “Eternal Justice,” st. 4
(Source)

Mackay's book Voices from the Mountain was published in 1847. The earliest rendition of the poem I can find in a publication is from The Harbinger, Vol. 5, No. 13 (1847-09-04).

Mackay, Charles -- Poem (1849?), “There Is No Such Thing as Death”

Dave — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 16:26:37 +0000

There is no such thing as death.
In nature nothing dies.
From each sad remnant of decay
Some forms of life arise.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Poem (1849?), “There Is No Such Thing as Death”

This poem is widely attributed to Mackay, but there is reason to doubt this. I was unable to find the poem in any collection of Mackay poetry.

The earliest reference I can find to the passage is in Eliza Cook's Journal, No. 34 (1849-12-22), where this is part of st. 3 of the poem. It is identified there as being written by Charlotte Young. I cannot find any other attributions to Young for this poem (and cannot find out anything more about a poet by that name who would have been writing in 1849).

The poem (with various numbers of stanzas) was very popular in the last half of the 19th Century, appearing as newspaper filler, memorial bulletins, and books of hymns and sacred poetry alike. All of these uses of it have the poem unattributed or "Anonymous" (earliest: 1857-02, 1859-11, 1859-11-17, 1859-12-17, 1860-02-15, 1860-08-28). Further use of the poem, unattributed, continue through the rest of the 19th Century.

In an "Answers from Readers" column in the New York Times (1913-11-23), the poem (well, the full stanza) is asserted to have written by Mackay; that is the earliest such attribution I can find.

In Kate Louis Roberts, ed., Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1922), it (just this portion) is also identified as being written by Mackay; after that, Mackay is credited in all sources I can find.

In summary, Mackay has become associated with this poem, most strongly by an attribution the popular Hoyt's in 1922, though there is at least one earlier reference. Prior to that it was identified for a number of decades, even after Mackay's death, as Anonymous, with the earliest reference I can find attributing it to a Charlotte Young.

Mackay, Charles -- Poem (1856?), “The Old and the New,” st. 45, Ballads and Lyrical Poems

Dave — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:39:21 +0000

The smallest effort is not lost,
Each wavelet on the ocean tost
Aids in the ebb-tide or the flow;
Each rain-drop makes some floweret blow;
Each struggle lessens human woe.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Poem (1856?), “The Old and the New,” st. 45, Ballads and Lyrical Poems
(Source)

Mackay, Charles -- Poem (1884), “No Enemies”, Interludes and Undertones, Poem 121

Dave — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 18:13:43 +0000

You have no enemies, you say?
Alas, my friend, the boast is poor;
He, who has mingled in the fray
Of duty that the brave endure,
Must have made foes! If you have none,
Small is the work that you have done,
You’ve hit no traitor on the hip,
You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip,
You’ve never turned the wrong to right,
You’ve been a coward in the fight.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Poem (1884), “No Enemies”, Interludes and Undertones, Poem 121
(Source)

The hitting on the hip is an allusion to Genesis 32:35.

A third-person version of the poem, titled "Not In It," was "Selected" as filler in The Medical and Surgical Reporter, Vol. 69, No. 19 (1893-11-04), uncredited:

He has no enemies, you say.
My friend, your boast is poor.
He who hath mingled in the fray
Of duty that the brave endure
Must have made foes.
If he has none,
Small is the work that he has done.
He has hit no fraud upon the hip;
He has shook no cup from perjured lip;
He has never turned the wrong to right;
He has been a coward in the fight.