Jean-Baptiste Say

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

"The difficulty lies, not in finding a producer, but in finding a consumer."

"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?"

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

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

"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."

"Nothing can be more idle than the opposition of theory to practice!"

"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."