William Petty Quotes

• Here we are to remember that in consequence of our opinion that labor is the Father and active principle of wealth, as lands are the Mother, that the state by killing, mutilating, or imprisoning their members do withal punish themselves.

  William Petty

  Mother, Father, Land

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• The 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 Petty

  Nature, Taken, Science

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• Money is the best rule of commerce.

  William Petty

  Finance, Commerce

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• No man pays double or twice for the same thing, forasmuch as nothing can be spent but once.

  William Petty

  Men, Double Standard, Pay

  Sir William Petty (1769). “Tracts; Chiefly Relating to Ireland: Containing: I. A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions. II. Essays in Political Arithmetic. III. The Political Anatomy of Ireland. By the Late Sir William Petty. To which is Prefixed His Last Will”, p.87

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• That some are poorer than others, ever was and ever will be: And that many are naturally querulous and envious, is an Evil as old as the World.

  William Petty

  Evil, World, Envious

  William Petty (1691). “Political arthmetick, or a discourse concerning the extent and value of lands, people, buildings, husbandry, manufacture, commerce etc”, p.24

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• A thousand acres that can feed a thousand souls is better than ten thousand acres of no more effect.

  William Petty

  Soul, Acres, Thousand

  Sir William Petty (1769). “Tracts, Chiefly Relating to Ireland: Containing: 1. A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions. II. Essays in Political Arithmetic. III. The Political Anatomy of Ireland”, p.219

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• Without the knowledge of the true number of the people, as a principle, the whole scope and use of keeping bills of birth and burials is impaired; wherefore by laborious conjectures and calculations to deduce the number of people from the births and burials, may be ingenious, but very preposterous.

  William Petty

  Numbers, People, Bills

  Sir William Petty (1986). “The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty: Together with the Observations Upon the Bills of Mortality More Probably by John Graunt”, Augustus m Kelley Pubs

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• Raising of money may indeed change the species, but with so much loss as the foreign pieces were raised unto, above their intrinsick value.

  William Petty

  Change, Loss, Pieces

  Sir William Petty (1769). “Tracts, Chiefly Relating to Ireland: Containing: 1. A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions. II. Essays in Political Arithmetic. III. The Political Anatomy of Ireland”, p.79

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• Causes of Civil War are also, that the Wealth of the Nation is in too few mens hands, and that no certain means are provided to keep all men from a necessity either to beg, or steal, or be Souldiers.

  William Petty

  War, Mean, Men

  Sir William Petty (1769). “Tracts, Chiefly Relating to Ireland: Containing: 1. A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions. II. Essays in Political Arithmetic. III. The Political Anatomy of Ireland”, p.7

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• It 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

  Years, Soil, Bears

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• The trade of banks is the buying and selling of interest and exchange.

  William Petty

  Buying, Selling, Interest

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• An house is of a double nature, viz., one, wherein it is a way and means of expence, the other as it is an instrument and tool of gain.

  William Petty

  Mean, House, Tools

  Sir William Petty (1769). “Tracts, Chiefly Relating to Ireland: Containing: 1. A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions. II. Essays in Political Arithmetic. III. The Political Anatomy of Ireland”, p.26

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• 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 Petty

  Men, Race, Etc

  Sir William PETTY (1769). “Tracts chiefly relating to Ireland, etc”, p.23

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• For every Seaman of Industry and Ingenuity, is not only a Navigator, but a Merchant, and also a Soldier.

  William Petty

  Soldier, Seamen, Navigators

  "Several Essays in Political Arithmetick".

  23 Copy quote

• I hope no man takes what I said about the living and dieing of men for mathematical demonstration.

  William Petty

  Men, Said, Demonstration

  6 Copy quote

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