Jean-Baptiste Say Quotes

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

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.

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.

Supply creates its own demand.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Alas, how many have been persecuted for the wrong of having been right?

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.

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.

When war becomes a trade, it benefits, like all other trades, from the division of labour.

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.

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.

To a proprietor of a mine, the silver money is a produce with which he buys what he has occasion for. To all those through whose hands this silver afterwards passes, it is only the price of the produce which they themselves have raised by means of their property in land, their capitals, or their industry. In selling them they in the first place exchange them for money, and afterwards they exchange the money for articles of consumption.

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

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

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

The ancients, by their system of colonization, made themselves friends all over the known world; the moderns have sought to make subjects, and therefore have made enemies.

The property a man has in his own industry, is violated, whenever he is forbidden the free exercise of his faculties or talents, except insomuch as they would interfere with the rights of third parties.

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

Dominion by land or sea will appear equally destitute of attraction, when it comes to be generally understood, that all its advantages rest with the rulers, and that the subjects at large derive no benefit whatever.

Still how unenlightened and ignorant are the very nations we term civilized!

The day will come, sooner or later, when people will wonder at the necessity of taking all this trouble to expose the folly of a system, so childish and absurd, and yet so often enforced at the point of a bayonet.

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

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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

The wealthy are generally impressed with an idea, that they shall never stand in need of public charitable relief; but a little less confidence would become them better.

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.

A science only advances with certainty, when the plan of inquiry and the object of our researches have been clearly defined; otherwise a small number of truths are loosely laid hold of, without their connexion being perceived, and numerous errors, without being enabled to detect their fallacy.

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.

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.

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

I'il n'est pas en notre pouvoir de changer la nature des choses. Il faut les йtudier telles qu'elles sont.

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

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

Capital must work, as it were, in concert with industry; and this concurrence is what I call the productive agency of capital.

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.

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.

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.