Like all other contracts, wages should be left to the fair and free competition of themarket, and should never be controlled by the interference of the legislature.

Labour, like all other things which are purchased and sold... has its natural and its market price.

The exchangeable value of all commodities rises as the difficulties of their production increase.

The produce of the earth - all that is derived from its surface by the united application of labour, machinery, and capital, is divided among three classes of the community, namely, the proprietor of the land, the owner of the stock or capital necessary for its cultivation, and the labourers by whose industry it is cultivated.

If I discover a manure which will enable me to make a piece of land produce 20 per cent more corn, I may withdraw at least a portion of my capital from the most unproductive part of my farm.

Profits are not made by differential cleverness, but by differential stupidity.

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.