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A happy society requires that great numbers of the poor stay ignorant as well as poor
Drawn from what Bernard Mandeville said
What Bernard Mandeville actually said
- Bernard Mandeville Anglo-Dutch philosopher and satirist (1670 to 1733)
To make the society happy, and people easy under the meanest circumstances, it is requisite that great numbers of them should be ignorant, as well as poor. Knowledge both enlarges and multiplies our desires, and the fewer things a man wishes for, the more easily his necessities may be supplied.
Where this was said
↗The Fable of the Bees; or, Private Vices, Public Benefits (1714; 1806 edition)gutenberg.org
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