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Jean-Baptiste Say citations
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Jean-Baptiste Say, né à Lyon le 5 janvier 1767 et mort à Paris le 14 novembre 1832, est le principal économiste classique français. Industriel du coton, il fut l'un des entrepreneurs huguenots de cette industrie alors en plein essor. Il fut également journaliste. Il est réputé pour ses positions libérales.

Il est l'auteur de la distinction tripartite « production – répartition – consommation », devenue classique. Celle-ci sert de plan au Traité d'économie politique, son maître-ouvrage paru en 1803. Il est également connu pour la « loi des débouchés » ou loi de Say, qui lui a été faussement attribuée par John Maynard Keynes, dans l'unique but de la réfuter[réf. nécessaire].

✵ 5. janvier 1767 – 15. novembre 1832
Jean-Baptiste Say photo
Jean-Baptiste Say: 78   citations 0   J'aime

Jean-Baptiste Say citations célèbres

“On a dit qu’en économie politique, il ne fallait s’en rapporter qu’aux chiffres; quand je vois qu’il n’y a pas d’opération détestable qu’on n’ait soutenue et déterminée par des calculs arithmétiques, je croirais plutôt que ce sont les chiffres qui tuent les états.”

Jean-Baptiste Say livre Traité d'économie politique

Traité d'économie politique, 1803

“Administrer ce qui devrait être abandonné à soi-même, c’est faire du mal aux administrés, et leur faire payer le mal qu’on leur fait comme si c’était un bien.”

Jean-Baptiste Say livre Traité d'économie politique

Traité d'économie politique, 1803

“C’est la production qui ouvre des débouchés aux produits”

Jean-Baptiste Say livre Traité d'économie politique

Traité d'économie politique, 1803

“Ainsi n’y a-t-il pas d’opinion extravagante qui n’ait été appuyée sur des faits, et c’est avec des faits qu’on a souvent égaré l’autorité publique. La connaissance des faits, sans la connaissance des rapports qui les lient, n’est que le savoir non digéré d’un commis de bureau”

Jean-Baptiste Say livre Traité d'économie politique

Traité d'économie politique, 1803

“On n’est jamais mieux gouverné que lorsqu’il n’y a pas de gouvernement.”

Jean-Baptiste Say

Politique pratique

“L’histoire n’est pas utile parcequ’on y lit le passé, mais parcequ’on y lit l’avenir.”

Jean-Baptiste Say livre Petit volume contenant quelques aperçus des hommes et de la société

Petit volume contenant quelques aperçus des hommes et de la société, 1817

Jean-Baptiste Say: Citations en anglais

“Nothing is more dangerous in practice, than an obstinate, unbending adherence to a system, particularly in its application to the wants and errors of mankind.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XVII, Section IV, P. 196

“The day will come, sooner or later, when people will wonder at the necessity of taking all this trouble to expose the folly of a system, so childish and absurd, and yet so often enforced at the point of a bayonet.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XVII, Digression, p. 159

“When a tree, a natural product, is felled, is society put into possession of no greater produce than that of the mere labour of the woodman?”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter IV, p. 76

“The government has, in all countries, a vast influence, in determining the character of the national consumption; not only because it absolutely directs the consumption of the state itself, but because a great proportion of the consumption of individuals is gained by its will and example.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book III, On Consumption, Chapter IV, p. 400

“Whence it is evident that the remedy must be adapted to the particular cause of the mischief; consequently, the cause must be ascertained, before the remedy is devised.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book II, On Distribution, Chapter VII, p. 336

“The love of domination never attains more than a factitious elevation, that is sure to make enemies of all its neighbours.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter IX, p. 104

“To have never done anything but make the eighteenth part of a pin, is a sorry account for a human being to give of his existence.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter VIII, p. 98 (See also: Adam Smith)

“The ancients, by their system of colonization, made themselves friends all over the known world; the moderns have sought to make subjects, and therefore have made enemies.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XIX, p. 213

“The occupation of the stock-jobber yields no new or useful product; consequently having no product of his own to give in exchange, he has no revenue to subsist upon, but what he contrives to make out of the unskilfulness or ill-fortune of gamesters like himself.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book III, On Consumption, Chapter IX, p. 481 (See also: Karl Marx, Capital, Volume III, Chapter XXVII, p. 440)

“I have made no distinction between the circulation of goods and of money, because there really is none.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XVI, p. 142

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

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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.”

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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.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

“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.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

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

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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.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

“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.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

“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.”

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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?”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

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

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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.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

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

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

“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.”

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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.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

“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.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

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

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

“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.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

“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.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

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

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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.”

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Jean-Baptiste Say

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

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