62 Quotes by Jean-Baptiste Say

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

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.

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.

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

The celebrated Adam Smith was the first to point out the immense increase of production, and the superior perfection of products referable to this division of labour.

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.

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

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 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.