Jean-Baptiste Say Quotes

The best scheme of finance is, to spend as little as possible; and the best tax is always the lightest.

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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

With respect to the present time, there are few persons who unite the qualifications of good observers with a situation favourable for accurate observation.

Every individual, from the common mechanic, that works in wood or clay, to the prime minister that regulates with the dash of his pen the agriculture, the breeding of cattle, the mining, or the commerce of a nation, will perform his business the better, the better he understands the nature of things,and the more his understanding is enlightened.