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The luxury of ostentation affords a much less substantial and solid gratification, than the luxury of comfort, if I may be allowed the expression.

Jean-Baptiste Say

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Jean-Baptiste Say
Age: 65 †
Born: 1767
Born: January 5
Died: 1832
Died: November 14
Economist
Industrialist
Journalist
Translator
Lyons
Jean Baptiste Say
Comfort
Expression
Ostentation
Less
Affords
May
Substantial
Much
Gratification
Solid
Luxury
Allowed

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The wealthy are generally impressed with an idea, that they shall never stand in need of public charitable relief but a little less confidence would become them better.
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In times of political confusion, and under an arbitrary government, many will prefer to keep their capital inactive, concealed, and unproductive, either of profit or gratification, rather than run the risk of its display. This latter evil is never felt under a good government.
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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.
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Wherefore it is impossible to succeed in comparing wealth of different eras or different nations. This, in political economy, like squaring the circle in mathematics, is impracticable, for want of a common mean or measure to go by.
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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.
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Dominion by land or sea will appear equally destitute of attraction, when it comes to be generally understood, that all its advantages rest with the rulers, and that the subjects at large derive no benefit whatever.
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The sea and wind can at the same time convey my neighbour's vessel and my own.
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If the community wish to have the benefit of more knowledge and intelligence in the labouring classes, it must dispense it at the public charge.
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Political economy has only become a science since it has been confined to the results of inductive investigation.
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When war becomes a trade, it benefits, like all other trades, from the division of labour.
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A shop-keeper in good business is quite as well off as a pedlar that travels the country with his wares on his back. Commercial jealousy is, after all, nothing but prejudice: it is a wild fruit, that will drop of itself when it has arrived at maturity.
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Taxation being a burthen, must needs weigh lightest on each individual, when it bears upon all alike.
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An uniformity of weights and measures, arranged upon mathematical principles, would be a benefit to the whole commercial world, if it were wise enough to adopt such an expedient.
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The government has, in all countries, a vast influence, in determining the character of the national consumption not only because it absolutely directs the consumption of the state itself, but because a great proportion of the consumption of individuals is gained by its will and example.
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To the labor of man alone Smith ascribes the power of producing values. This is an error. A more exact analysis demonstrates... that all the values are derived from the operation of labor, or rather from the industry of man, combined with the operation of those agents which nature and capital furnish him.
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With respect to the present time, there are few persons who unite the qualifications of good observers with a situation favourable for accurate observation.
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No human being has the faculty of originally creating matter, which is more than nature itself can do. But any one may avail himself of the agents offered him by nature, to invest matter with utility.
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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.
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It is a melancholy but an undoubted fact, that, even in the most thriving countries, part of the population annually dies of mere want. Not that all who perish from want absolutely die of hunger though this calamity is of more frequent occurrence than is generally supposed.
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Demand and supply are the opposite extremes of the beam, whence depend the scales of dearness and cheapness the price is the point of equilibrium, where the momentum of the one ceases, and that of the other begins.
Jean-Baptiste Say