A treasure does not always contribute to the political security of its possessors. It rather invites attack, and very seldom is faithfully applied to the purpose for which it was destined.
A tax can never be favorable to the public welfare, except by the good use that is made of its proceeds.
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.
What can we expect from nations still less advanced in civilization than the Greeks?
The luxury of ostentation affords a much less substantial and solid gratification, than the luxury of comfort, if I may be allowed the expression.
The theory of interest was wrapped in utter obscurity, until Hume and Smith dispelled the vapor.
Alas, how many have been persecuted for the wrong of having been right?
What is the motive which operates in every man’s breast to counteract the impulse towards the gratification of his wants and appetites?
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.
To have never done anything but make the eighteenth part of a pin, is a sorry account for a human being to give of his existence.
The celebrated Adam Smith was the first to point out the immense increase of production, and the superior perfection of products referable to this division of labour.
When a tree, a natural product, is felled, is society put into possession of no greater produce than that of the mere labour of the woodman?
Political economy has only become a science since it has been confined to the results of inductive investigation.
Nothing can be more idle than the opposition of theory to practice!
Some writers maintain arithmetic to be only the only sure guide in political economy; for my part, I see so many detestable systems built upon arithmetical statements, that I am rather inclined to regard that science as the instrument of national calamity.
Valuation is vague and arbitrary, when there is no assurance that it will be generally acquiesced in by others.
Opulent, civilized, and industrious nations, are greater consumers than poor ones, because they are infinitely greater producers.
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.
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.
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.