Jean-Baptiste Say Quotes

75 Sourced Quotes

All travellers agree that protestant are both richer and more populous than catholic countries; and the reason is, because the habits of the former are more conducive to production.

Jean-Baptiste Say
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.

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

Jean-Baptiste Say
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.

Jean-Baptiste Say
Thus, it is the aim of good government to stimulate production, of bad government to encourage consumption.

Jean-Baptiste Say
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.

Jean-Baptiste Say
Labour, upon whichever of those operations it be bestowed, is productive, because it concurs in the creation of a product. Thus the labour of the philosopher, whether experimental or literary, is productive; the labour of the adventurer or master-manufacturer is productive, although he perform no actual manual work; the labour of every operative workman is productive, from the common day-labourer in agriculture, to the pilot that governs the motion of a ship.

Jean-Baptiste Say
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.

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

Jean-Baptiste Say
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.

Jean-Baptiste Say
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.

Jean-Baptiste Say
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.

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

Jean-Baptiste Say
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?

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

Jean-Baptiste Say