“A system of swindling can never be long lived, and must infallibly in the end produce much more loss than profit.”

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XXI, Section V, p. 238
Context: And let no government imagine, that, to strip them of the power of defrauding their subjects, is to deprive them of a valuable privilege. A system of swindling can never be long lived, and must infallibly in the end produce much more loss than profit.

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Jean-Baptiste Say photo
Jean-Baptiste Say 72
French economist and businessman 1767–1832

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“By art and swindling here
Men live for half the year;
By swindling and by art
They live the other part.”

Giovanni Maria Cecchi (1518–1587) Italian poet, playwright, writer and notary

Per arte e per inganno
Si vive mezzo l’anno;
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