From Charles Mackay (1814–1889), Scottish poet, journalist, author, anthologist, novelist, and songwriter, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841):
Three causes especially have excited the discontent of mankind; and, by impelling us to seek remedies for the irremediable, have bewildered us in a maze of madness and error. These are death, toil, and the ignorance of the future…
It’s been many years since I read ……madness of crowds; but one line has always stayed with me. Seems at the height of the South Seas Bubble kiosks were springing up all over the streets of London with promoters selling stock in various companies. One had a sign promoting itself as “a most marvelous and profitable undertaking; no one to know what it is”.