Of all ways whereby great wealth is acquired by good and honest means, none is more advantageous than mining; for although from fields which are well tilled (not to mention other things) we derive rich yields, yet we obtain richer products from mines; in fact, one mine is often much more beneficial to us than many fields.

Translated by Herbert Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover, De Re Metallica, Preface (p. xxv), The Mining magazine, 1912