Jean-Baptiste Say Quotes

Thrift is not some obsolete Victorian notion. . . . It will be the difference between those who prosper and achieve respect and those who become a burden to their children and society.

Qualities not regulated run into their opposites. Economy before competence is meanness after it. Therefore economy is for the poor; the rich may dispense with it.

Economy is half the battle in life, but it is not so hard to earn money as to spend it well. Hundreds would never have known want if they had not first known waste.

Waste begets self-will; thrift begets meanness: but better be mean than self-willed.

A penny spar'd is twice got.

As boys should be educated with temperance, so the first greatest lesson that should be taught them is to admire frugality. It is by the exercise of this virtue alone they can ever expect to be useful members of society.

A wise man will live as much within his wit as within his income.

When I buy something, I do so with the intention of keeping it forever.

We have to change the kind of free trade deals we sign. We would have to change the absolutely central role of frenetic consumption in our culture. We would have to change the role of money in politics and our political system.

You want to harbor your resources and try not to make a mistake.

I don't like wasting food.

All to whom want is terrible, upon whatever principle, ought to think themselves obliged to learn the sage maxims of our parsimonious ancestors, and attain the salutary arts of contracting expense; for without economy none can be rich, and with it few can be poor.

Frugality includes all the other virtues.

Spend and be free, but make no waste.

The mere power of saving what is already in our hands must be of easy acquisition to every mind; and as the example of Lord Bacon may show that the highest intellect cannot safely neglect it, a thousand instances every day prove that the humblest may practise it with success.

We need a transformation of the world economy and of how we use and share the Earth's resources. We are running out of time. We are truly at the point of no return.

As much wisdom may be expended on a private economy as on an empire, and as much wisdom may be drawn from it.

Tis use alone that sanctifies expense And splendor borrow all her rays from sense.

If frugality were established in the state, and if our expenses were laid out to meet needs rather than superfluities of life, there might be fewer wants, and even fewer pleasures, but infinitely more happiness.

So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a grout at last.

The use we make of our fortune determines its sufficiency. A little is enough if used wisely, and too much if expended foolishly.

All things are cheap to the saving, dear to the wasteful

Frugality is good if liberality be joined with it. The first is leaving off superfluous expenses; the last is bestowing them to the benefit of others that need. The first without the last begets covetousness; the last without the first begets prodigality.

The further through life I drift the more obvious it becomes that I am lacking in thrift.

A penny saved is twopence dear; A pin a day 's a groat a year.