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Top 25 Charles Mackay Quotes (2025 Update)

Charles Mackay Quote: “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.”

1. “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

Featured in: Duty Quotes

Charles Mackay Quote: “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.”

2. “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

Charles Mackay Quote: “There ’s a good time coming, boys! A good time coming.”

3. “There ’s a good time coming, boys! A good time coming.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Old Tubal Cain was a man of might In the days when earth was young.”

4. “Old Tubal Cain was a man of might In the days when earth was young.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “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.”

5. “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.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Water is the mother of the vine, the nurse and fountain of fecundity, the adorner and refresher of the world.”

6. “Water is the mother of the vine, the nurse and fountain of fecundity, the adorner and refresher of the world.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.”

7. “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Every age has its peculiar folly: Some scheme, project, or fantasy into which it plunges, spurred on by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the force of imitation.”

8. “Every age has its peculiar folly: Some scheme, project, or fantasy into which it plunges, spurred on by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the force of imitation.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “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.”

9. “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.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Men of thought and men of action, clear the Way!”

10. “Men of thought and men of action, clear the Way!”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “There’s a fount about to stream, There’s a light about to beam, There’s a warmth about to glow, There’s a flower about to blow; There’s a midnight blackness changing Into gray; Men of thought and men of action, Clear the way.”

11. “There’s a fount about to stream, There’s a light about to beam, There’s a warmth about to glow, There’s a flower about to blow; There’s a midnight blackness changing Into gray; Men of thought and men of action, Clear the way.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Much as the sage may affect to despise the opinion of the world, there are few who would not rather expose their lives a hundred times than be condemned to live on, in society, but not of it – a by-word of reproach to all who know their history, and a mark for scorn to point his finger at.”

12. “Much as the sage may affect to despise the opinion of the world, there are few who would not rather expose their lives a hundred times than be condemned to live on, in society, but not of it – a by-word of reproach to all who know their history, and a mark for scorn to point his finger at.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “If happy I and wretched he, Perhaps the king would change with me.”

13. “If happy I and wretched he, Perhaps the king would change with me.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Nations, like individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity. Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later.”

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

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “There is no such thing as death. In nature nothing dies. From each sad remnant of decay, some forms of life arise so shall his life be taken away before he knoweth that he hath it.”

15. “There is no such thing as death. In nature nothing dies. From each sad remnant of decay, some forms of life arise so shall his life be taken away before he knoweth that he hath it.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “An arrow may fly through the air and leave no trace; but an ill thought leaves a trail like a serpent.”

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

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “War in men’s eyes shall be A monster of iniquity In the good time coming. Nations shall not quarrel then, To prove which is the stronger; Nor slaughter men for glory’s sake; – Wait a little longer.”

17. “War in men’s eyes shall be A monster of iniquity In the good time coming. Nations shall not quarrel then, To prove which is the stronger; Nor slaughter men for glory’s sake; – Wait a little longer.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Some love to roam o’er the dark sea’s foam, Where the shrill winds whistle free.”

18. “Some love to roam o’er the dark sea’s foam, Where the shrill winds whistle free.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “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.”

19. “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

Charles Mackay Quote: “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.”

20. “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.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Aid the dawning, tongue and pen; Aid it, hopes of honest men!”

21. “Aid the dawning, tongue and pen; Aid it, hopes of honest men!”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “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. Prophecies of all sorts are rife on such occasions, and are readily believed, whether for good or evil. During the great plague, which ravaged all Europe, between the years 1345 and 1350, it was generally considered that the end of the world was at hand.”

22. “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. Prophecies of all sorts are rife on such occasions, and are readily believed, whether for good or evil. During the great plague, which ravaged all Europe, between the years 1345 and 1350, it was generally considered that the end of the world was at hand.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “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...”

23. “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...”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Injury was aggravated by insult, and insult was embittered by pleasantry.”

24. “Injury was aggravated by insult, and insult was embittered by pleasantry.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “We all pay an involuntary homage to antiquity – a “blind homage,” as Bacon calls it in his “Novum Organum,” which tends greatly to the obstruction of truth. To the great majority of mortal eyes, Time sanctifies everything that he does not destroy. The mere fact of anything being spared by the great foe makes it a favourite with us, who are sure to fall his victims.”

25. “We all pay an involuntary homage to antiquity – a “blind homage,” as Bacon calls it in his “Novum Organum,” which tends greatly to the obstruction of truth. To the great majority of mortal eyes, Time sanctifies everything that he does not destroy. The mere fact of anything being spared by the great foe makes it a favourite with us, who are sure to fall his victims.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Credulity is always greatest in times of calamity.”

26. “Credulity is always greatest in times of calamity.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Some men, by dint of excessive egotism, manage to persuade their contemporaries that they are very great men indeed: they publish their acquirements so loudly in people’s ears, and keep up their own praises so incessantly, that the world’s applause is actually taken by storm.”

27. “Some men, by dint of excessive egotism, manage to persuade their contemporaries that they are very great men indeed: they publish their acquirements so loudly in people’s ears, and keep up their own praises so incessantly, that the world’s applause is actually taken by storm.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Every fool aspired to be a knave.”

28. “Every fool aspired to be a knave.”

— Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay Quote: “Posterity is grateful if our contemporaries are not.”

29. “Posterity is grateful if our contemporaries are not.”

— Charles Mackay

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