A feather will weigh down a scale when there is nothing in the opposite one.

Had population and food increased in the same ratio, it is probable that man might never have emerged from the savage state.

If one fourth of the capital of a country were suddenly destroyed, or entirely transferred to a different part of the world, without any other cause occurring of a diminished demand for commodities, this scantiness of capital would certainly occasion great inconvenience to consumers, and great distress among the working classes; but it would be attended with great advantages to the remaining capitalists.

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.

The most effectual encouragement to population is, the activity of industry, and the consequent multiplication of the national products.

The friend of the present order of things condemns all political speculations in the gross.

The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil.