[T]he great Recompence in view, for which the most exalted Minds have with so much Alacrity sacrificed their Quiet, Health, sensual Pleasures, and every Inch of themselves, has never been any thing else but the Breath of Man, the Aerial Coin of Praise.
– Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees vol. I (1988 [1732]), pp. 54-55.
(Not true. But I like the imagery.)
