Jean-Baptiste Say Quotes

Some writers maintain arithmetic to be only the only sure guide in political economy; for my part, I see so many detestable systems built upon arithmetical statements, that I am rather inclined to regard that science as the instrument of national calamity.

If one individual, or one class, can call in the aid of authority to ward off the effects of competition, it acquires a privilege and at the cost of the whole community; it can make sure of profits not altogether due to the productive services rendered, but composed in part of an actual tax upon consumers for its private profit' which tax it commonly shares with the authority that thus unjustly lent its support.

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

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.

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.

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.

The celebrated Adam Smith was the first to point out the immense increase of production, and the superior perfection of products referable to this division of labour.

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.

All those who, since Adam Smith, have turned their attention to Political Economy, agree that in reality we do not buy articles of consumption with money, the circulating medium with which we pay for them. We must in the first instance have bought this money itself by the sale of our produce.

The luxury of ostentation affords a much less substantial and solid gratification, than the luxury of comfort, if I may be allowed the expression.

Political economy has only become a science since it has been confined to the results of inductive investigation.

Valuation is vague and arbitrary, when there is no assurance that it will be generally acquiesced in by others.

The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.

The manner in which things exist and take place, constitutes what is called the nature of things; and a careful observation of the nature of things is the sole foundation of all truth.

To the labor of man alone Smith ascribes the power of producing values. This is an error. A more exact analysis demonstrates ... that all the values are derived from the operation of labor, or rather from the industry of man, combined with the operation of those agents which nature and capital furnish him.

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.

A nation or an individual, will do wisely to direct consumption chiefly to those articles, that are longest time in wearing out, and the most frequently in use.

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.

But what must be the character of that policy, which aims at national prosperity through the impoverishment of a large proportion of the home producers, with a view to supply foreigners at a cheaper rate, and give them all the benifet of the national privation and self denial?

But, is it possible for princes and ministers to be enlightened, when private individuals are not so?

It is the aim of good government to stimulate production, of bad government to encourage consumption.

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

One product is always ultimately bought with another, even when paid for in the first instance with money.

Freedoms and apprenticeships are likewise expedients of police,not of that wholesome branch of police, whose object is the maintenance of the public and private security, and which is neither costly nor vexatious; but of that sort of police which bad governments employ to preserve or extend their personal authority at any expense.

Capital cannot be more beneficially employed, then in strengthening and aiding the productive powers of nature.

A treasure does not always contribute to the political security of its possessors. It rather invites attack, and very seldom is faithfully applied to the purpose for which it was destined.

Opulent, civilized, and industrious nations, are greater consumers than poor ones, because they are infinitely greater producers.

Demand and supply are the opposite extremes of the beam, whence depend the scales of dearness and cheapness; the price is the point of equilibrium, where the momentum of the one ceases, and that of the other begins.

Capital in the hands of a national government forms a part of the gross national capital.

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.

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

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

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.

What is the motive which operates in every man's breast to counteract the impulse towards the gratification of his wants and appetites?

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.

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

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

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.

A shop-keeper in good business is quite as well off as a pedlar that travels the country with his wares on his back. Commercial jealousy is, after all, nothing but prejudice: it is a wild fruit, that will drop of itself when it has arrived at maturity.

A tax can never be favorable to the public welfare, except by the good use that is made of its proceeds.

The theory of interest was wrapped in utter obscurity, until Hume and Smith dispelled the vapor.

What can we expect from nations still less advanced in civilization than the Greeks?

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?

The difficulty lies, not in finding a producer, but in finding a consumer.