By far the greatest part of those goods which are the objects of desire, are procured by labour; and they may be multiplied, not in one country alone, but in many, almost without any assignable limit, if we are disposed to bestow the labour necessary to obtain them.

There can be no rise in the value of labour without a fall of profits.

Rent is the portion of the earth, which is paid to the landlord for the user of the original and indestructible powers of the soil.

There is no way of keeping profits up but by keeping wages down...

It is here we come to the heart of the matter. The economic principle of comparative advantage’, ’a country may, in return for manufactured commodities, import corn even if it can be grown with less labour than in the country from which it is imported.

If a commodity were in no way useful, – in other words, if it could in no way contribute to our gratification, – it would be destitute of exchangeable value, however scarce it might be, or whatever quantity of labour might be necessary to procure it.

In the course of these observations, I have often had occasion to insist, that rent never falls without the profits of stock rising.

If the quantity of labour realized in commodities, regulate their exchangeable value, every increase of the quantity of labour must augment the value of that commodity on which it is exercised, as every diminution must lower it.

The farmer and manufacturer can no more live without profit than the labourer without wages.

Nothing contributes so much to the prosperity and happiness of a country as high profits.