If a tax on malt would raise the price of beer, a tax on bread must raise the price of bread.

Every transaction in commerce is an independent transaction.

No extension of foreign trade will immediately increase the amount of value in a country, although it will very powerfully contribute to increase the mass of commodities and therefore the sum of enjoyments.

The farmer and manufacturer can no more live without profit than the labourer without wages.

It appears to me that one great cause of our difference in opinion on subjects which we often discuss is that you have always in mind the immediate and temporary effects of particular changes, whereas I put these effects quite aside, and fix my whole attention on the long-term effects that will result from them.

Nothing contributes so much to the prosperity and happiness of a country as high profits.

If a commodity were in no way useful, - in other words, if it could in no way contribute to our gratification, - it would be destitute of exchangeable value, however scarce it might be, or whatever quantity of labour might be necessary to procure it.