quote · Legacy record
When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns it's back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe.
When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns it's back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe.
Approximate author period: c. 1825 AD · industrial
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- Author or tradition
- Frédéric Bastiat
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1825 AD · industrial
Approximate period for the recorded attribution to Frédéric Bastiat, based on documented lifetime 1801 to 1850. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q13515 (checked 2026-10-08). This is not a quotation composition date or independent authentication of its attribution. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q13515 (accessed 2026-10-08).
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 152921; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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