Jean-Baptiste Say: Trending quotes (page 3)

“The most effectual encouragement to population is, the activity of industry, and the consequent multiplication of the national products.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book II, On Distribution, Chapter XI, Section I, p. 375 (See also: Thomas Malthus)

“It is, perhaps, a well founded objection to Mr. Ricardo, that he sometimes reasons upon abstract principles to which he gives too great a generalization.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Introduction, p. xlvii

“With no fixed opinions in relation to the causes of public prosperity, the nation, like a ship without chart or compass, was driven about by the caprice of the winds and the folly of the pilot, alike ignorant of the place of her departure or destination.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Introduction, p. lvi

Departure

“No human being has the faculty of originally creating matter, which is more than nature itself can do. But any one may avail himself of the agents offered him by nature, to invest matter with utility.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter II, p. 65

Nature

“Nothing can be more idle than the opposition of theory to practice!”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Introduction, p. xxi

“It is a melancholy but an undoubted fact, that, even in the most thriving countries, part of the population annually dies of mere want. Not that all who perish from want absolutely die of hunger; though this calamity is of more frequent occurrence than is generally supposed.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book II, On Distribution, Chapter XI, Section I, p. 372-373

Hunger , Parting , Country

“In times of political confusion, and under an arbitrary government, many will prefer to keep their capital inactive, concealed, and unproductive, either of profit or gratification, rather than run the risk of its display. This latter evil is never felt under a good government.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book III, On Consumption, Chapter I, note 2

Evil , Time

“A much larger value is consumed in lettuces than in pineapples, throughout Europe at large; and the superb shawls of Cachemere are, in France, a very poor object in trade, in comparison with the plain cotton goods of Rouen.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book II, On Distribution, Chapter VI, p. 323

“What would people think of a tradesman, that was to give a ball in his shop, hire performers, and hand refreshments about, with a view to benefit his business?”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XX, p. 214 (See also: Marketing)

People , Business , Thinking

“The United States will have the honour of proving experimentally, that true policy goes hand in hand with moderation and humanity.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XV, p. 138

“An uniformity of weights and measures, arranged upon mathematical principles, would be a benefit to the whole commercial world, if it were wise enough to adopt such an expedient.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book III, On Consumption, Chapter VI, Section II, p. 433

World , Mathematics

“The sea and wind can at the same time convey my neighbour's vessel and my own.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book II, On Distribution, Chapter IX, Section I, p. 360

Time , Sea

“There is no security of property, where a despotic authority can possess itself of the property of the subject against his consent. Neither is there such security, where the consent is merely nominal and delusive.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XIV

“regulation is useful and proper, when aimed at the prevention of fraud or contrivance, manifestly injurious to other kinds of production, or to the public safety, and not at prescribing the nature of the products and the methods of fabrication.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XVII, Section II, p. 181

Fraud , Nature

“The haggardness of poverty is everywhere seen contrasted with the sleekness of wealth, the exhorted labour of some compensating for the idleness of others, wretched hovels by the side of stately colonnades, the rags of indigence blended with the ensigns of opulence; in a word, the most useless profusion in the midst of the most urgent wants.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Introduction, p. l

Wealth

“Law has been unjustly charged with the whole blame of the calamities resulting from the scheme that bears his name.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XXII, Section IV, p. 281

Law

“Capital can seldom be made productive, without undergoing several changes both of form and of place, the risk of which is always more or less alarming to persons unaccustomed to the operations of industry; whereas, on the contrary, landed property produces without any change of either quality or position.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book II, On Distribution, Chapter IX, Section I, p. 363

Change , Personality

“The command of a large sum is a dangerous temptation to a national administration. Though accumulated at their expense, the people rarely, if ever profit by it: yet in point of fact, all value, and consequently, all wealth, originates with the people.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book III, On Consumption, Chapter IX, p. 487

People , Wealth

“Capital must work, as it were, in concert with industry; and this concurrence is what I call the productive agency of capital.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter III, p. 73

“Taxation being a burthen, must needs weigh lightest on each individual, when it bears upon all alike.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book III, On Consumption, Chapter VIII, Section I, p. 454