Bernard Mandeville Quotes on Politics
Bernard Mandeville was a Dutch-born English physician, satirist, and philosopher whose Fable of the Bees scandalized eighteenth-century moralists by arguing that the private vices of pride, vanity, and self-interest are precisely what produce the public benefits of a flourishing commercial society. This page collects quotes attributed to Bernard Mandeville on the topic of politics, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Bernard Mandeville:
“Private vices, public benefits.”
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Attributed to Bernard Mandeville:
“Pride is the great support of art and industry.”
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Attributed to Bernard Mandeville:
“We do not need to be virtuous in order to live well in society.”
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Attributed to Bernard Mandeville:
“Hunger, thirst and nakedness are the first tyrants that force us to stir.”
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“Thus every Part was full of Vice, Yet the whole Mass a Paradise; Flatter'd in Peace, and fear'd in Wars, They were th' Esteem of Foreigners, And lavish of their Wealth and Lives, The Balance of all other Hives.”
The Grumbling Hive", line 155, p. 9