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Quote#Money & Wealth

Commerce is but a means to an end, the diffusion of civilization and…

Quote byWilliam Stanley Jevons · 1835–1882

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Coal Question (1865).

English (original)

Commerce is but a means to an end, the diffusion of civilization and wealth. To allow commerce to proceed until the source of civilization is weakened and overturned is like killing the goose to get the golden egg. Is the immediate creation of material wealth to be our only object?

— William Stanley Jevons

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