Quotes About Quacks

The social function of economic science consists precisely in developing sound economic theories and in exploding the fallacies of vicious reasoning. In the pursuit of this task the economist incurs the deadly enmity of all mountebanks and charlatans whose shortcuts to an earthly paradise he debunks. The less these quacks are able to advance plausible objections to an economist's argument, the more furiously do they insult them.

The New York press mercilessly mocked Tilton's screed. The World headlined its tirade "The Queen of Quacks" and Tilton's words "hideous rubbish." Harper's Weekly hooted: "If apples are wormy this year, and grapes mildew, and duck's eggs addle… it may all be ascribed to the unhallowed influence of Mr. Tilton's Life of Victoria Woodhull.