Bernard Mandeville Quote

Thus every Part was full of Vice,
Yet the whole Mass a Paradise;
Flatter'd in Peace, and fear'd in Wars,
They were th' Esteem of Foreigners,
And lavish of their Wealth and Lives,
The Balance of all other Hives.

"The Grumbling Hive", line 155, p. 9 - The Fable of the Bees (1714)