Wherefore the race being not to the swift, etc. but time and chance happening to all men, I leave the Judgement of the whole to the Candid, of whose correction I shall never be impatient.
William PettyNo man pays double or twice for the same thing, forasmuch as nothing can be spent but once.
William PettyA thousand acres that can feed a thousand souls is better than ten thousand acres of no more effect.
William PettyRaising of money may indeed change the species, but with so much loss as the foreign pieces were raised unto, above their intrinsick value.
William PettyThe method I take to do this is not yet very usual; for instead of using only comparative and superlative Words, and intellectual Arguments, I have taken the course (as a Specimen of the Political Arithmetic I have long aimed at) to express myself in Terms of Number, Weight, or Measure; to use only Arguments of Sense, and to consider only such Causes, as have visible Foundations in Nature.
William PettyIt were good to know how much hay an acre of every sort will bear; how many cattle the same weight of each sort of hay will feed and fatten; what quantity of grain and other commodities the same acre will bear in one, three or seven years; unto what use each soil is proper; all which particulars I call intrinsic value, for there is also another value merely accidental or extrinsic.
William Petty