David Ricardo Inspirational Quotes (31)

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

Gold, on the contrary, though of little use compared with air or water, will exchange for a great quantity of other goods.

Whenever, then, the usual and ordinary rate of the profits of agricultural stock, and all the outgoings belonging to the cultivation of land, are together equal to the value of the whole produce, there can be no rent.

But a tax on luxuries would no other effect than to raise their price. It would fall wholly on the consumer, and could neither increase wages nor lower profits.

A rise of wages from this cause will, indeed, be invariably accompanied by a rise in the price of commodities but in such cases, it will be found that labour and all commodities have not varied in regard to each other, and that the variation has been confined to money.

Profits are not made by differential cleverness, but by differential stupidity.

Taxation under every form presents but a choice of evils.