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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.

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
Plans
Clearly
Numerous
Hold
Errors
Advances
Numbers
Object
Perceived
Researches
Small
Otherwise
Inquiry
Connexion
Science
Plan
Laid
Loosely
Without
Research
Truths
Detect
Number
Certainty
Enabled
Objects
Defined
Fallacy

More quotes by Jean-Baptiste Say

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The United States will have the honour of proving experimentally, that true policy goes hand in hand with moderation and humanity.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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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.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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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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The best scheme of finance is, to spend as little as possible and the best tax is always the lightest.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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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.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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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.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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The day will come, sooner or later, when people will wonder at the necessity of taking all this trouble to expose the folly of a system, so childish and absurd, and yet so often enforced at the point of a bayonet.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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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.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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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.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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When war becomes a trade, it benefits, like all other trades, from the division of labour.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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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.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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The command of a large sum is a dangerous temptation to a national administration. Though accumulated at their expense, the people rarely, if ever profit by it: yet in point of fact, all value, and consequently, all wealth, originates with the people.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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The property a man has in his own industry, is violated, whenever he is forbidden the free exercise of his faculties or talents, except insomuch as they would interfere with the rights of third parties.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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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.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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Law has been unjustly charged with the whole blame of the calamities resulting from the scheme that bears his name.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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The ancients, by their system of colonization, made themselves friends all over the known world the moderns have sought to make subjects, and therefore have made enemies.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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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.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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All travellers agree that protestant are both richer and more populous than catholic countriesand the reason is, because the habits of the former are more conducive to production.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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The occupation of the stock-jobber yields no new or useful product consequently having no product of his own to give in exchange, he has no revenue to subsist upon, but what he contrives to make out of the unskilfulness or ill-fortune of gamesters like himself.
Jean-Baptiste Say
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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.
Jean-Baptiste Say