Jean-Baptiste Say - Government Quotes

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In times of political confusion, and under an arbitrary government, many will prefer to keep their capital inactive, concealed, and unproductive, either of profit or gratification, rather than run the risk of its display. This latter evil is never felt under a good government.

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

Jean-Baptiste Say
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.

Jean-Baptiste Say
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.

Jean-Baptiste Say
Capital in the hands of a national government forms a part of the gross national capital.

Jean-Baptiste Say
It is doubtless very desirable, that private persons should have a correct knowledge of their personal interests; but it must be infinitely more so, that governments should possess that knowledge.

Jean-Baptiste Say