Jean-Baptiste Say Quotes

The science of political economy is essentially practical, and applicable to the common business of human life. There are few branches of human knowledge where false views may do more harm, or just views more good.

Political Economy as a branch of science is extremely modern; but the subject with which its enquiries are conversant has in all ages necessarily constituted one of the chief practical interests of mankind.

Self-preservation and self-denial: the basis of all political economy.

Political Economy or Economics is a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life.

It has been said, and perhaps with truth, that the conclusions of Political Economy partake more of the certainty of the stricter sciences than those of most of the other branches of human knowledge.

Economics is a form of brain damage.

Economics is a good degree to have but the subject is very theoretical at Cambridge and I found it frustrating that you can't apply a lot of the models to particular circumstances.

I want to talk about political and economic fairy tales.

Economy is not baseball, where the game is always played by the same rules.

Other things, like capitalism, free enterprise, the economy, currency, the market, are not forces of nature, we invented them. They are not immutable and we can change them.

the principles of political economy have elevated the working class above the place they ever filled before.

Everybody thinks of economics whether he is aware of it or not. In joining a political party or in casting his ballot, the citizen implicitly takes a stand upon essential economic theories.

Any man who is only an economist is unlikely to be a good one.

The problem is, of course, that not only is economics bankrupt but it has always been nothing more than politics in disguise ... economics is a form of brain damage.

I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.

Economics is a social science, not a physical science.

The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.

Economics has been called the dismal science. Once you get to understand it, you may not find it so dismal, but you don't find it much of a science either.

In the domain of Political Economy, free scientific inquiry meets not merely the same enemies as in all other domains. The peculiar nature of the material it deals with, summons as foes into the field of battle the most violent, mean and malignant passions of the human breast, the Furies of private interest.

Economics is not a morality play.

Political economy has only become a science since it has been confined to the results of inductive investigation.

Political Economy, in truth, has never pretended to give advice to mankind with no lights but its own; though people who knew nothing but political economy (and therefore knew it ill) have taken upon themselves to advise, and could only do so by such lights as they had.

Studying economics is not a good preparation for dealing with it.

Politics, as any observer of the modern world knows, is the enemy of economics, everywhere and always.