“Be glad that you're greedy; the national economy would collapse if you weren't.”
The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified
The statement is misattributed to Mandela by Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam at a press conference https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202005/19/P2020051900367.htm, which was found by the media https://hongkongfp.com/2020/05/19/history-exam-row-hong-kongs-carrie-lam-dismisses-claims-of-political-intervention-appears-to-misquote-mandela/ to be misattribution.
Misattributed
“Be glad that you're greedy; the national economy would collapse if you weren't.”
The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified
Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Fire Book
Press Conference: Announcing Candidacy for Presidency, 2007-02-13 http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/13/romney.announce/index.html
2007 campaign for Republican nomination for United States President
“Growth is slow but collapse is rapid.”
[Ugo Bardi, 2017, The Seneca Effect: Why growth is slow but collapse is rapid, 7, Springer, 1612-3018, 10.1007/978-3-319-57207-9]
Other works
“The work of memory collapses time.”
1930s, Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (1932)
“Let it collapse, it will be the fault of Israel and the Americans.”
Edward G. Abington, a former State Department official who is now a Washington consultant to the Palestinian Authority regarding the future of the Palestinian Authority http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17536-2004Feb29.html (2004-02-29) -->
2000s
“Calamitous collapse is better than mediocre defeat!”
Quoted in The London Evening Standard (9 August 2001).
“The wall is rotten. One good shove and it will collapse.”
As quoted by Tariq Ali in The Dilemmas of Lenin, in response to a officer asking "Why are you causing trouble, young man? You're breaking your head against a wall."
Attributions