William Petty Quotes

#1. 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

#2. 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

#3. 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

#4. 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

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

William Petty

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

William Petty

#7. 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

#8. 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

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

William Petty

#10. Every seaman is not only a navigator, but a merchant and also a soldier.

William Petty

#11. 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

#12. Wherefore when a man giveth out his money upon condition that be may not demand it back until a certain time to come, he certainly may take a compensation for this inconvenience which he admits against himself.

William Petty

#13. Money is the best rule of commerce.

William Petty

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

William Petty