Quotes from Jean-Baptiste Say

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

The quantity of money, which is readily parted with to obtain a thing is called its price.

At Newfoundland, it is said, that dried cod performs the office of money

It is the aim of good government to stimulate production, of bad government to encourage consumption.

Capital in the hands of a national government forms a part of the gross national capital.

The United States will have the honour of proving experimentally, that true policy goes hand in hand with moderation and humanity.

It is production which opens a demand for products…. A product is no sooner created, than it, from that instant, affords a market for other products to the full extent of its own value.

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.

The sea and wind can at the same time convey my neighbour's vessel and my own.

With respect to the present time, there are few persons who unite the qualifications of good observers with a situation favourable for accurate observation.

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.

The love of domination never attains more than a factitious elevation, that is sure to make enemies of all its neighbours.

The wants of mankind are supplied and satisfied out of the gross values produced and created, and not out of the net values only.

When war becomes a trade, it benefits, like all other trades, from the division of labour.

Alas, how many have been persecuted for the wrong of having been right?

Capital must work, as it were, in concert with industry; and this concurrence is what I call the productive agency of capital.

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.