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Quotes by William Petty

A thousand acres that can feed a thousand souls is better than ten thousand acres of no more effect.
– William Petty
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
Another cause which aggravates taxes is the force of paying them in money at a certain tinge, and not in commodities at the most convenient seasons.
– William Petty
As for religion, I die in the profession of that faith, and in the practice of such worship as I find established by the law of my country.
– William Petty
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
Civil Wars are likewise caused by peoples fansying, that their own uneasie condition may be best remedied by an universal confusion; although indeed upon the upshot of such disorders they shall probably be in a worse, even although they survive and succeed, but more probably perish in the contest.
– William Petty
Every man ought to contribute according to what he taketh to himself, and actually enjoyeth.
– William Petty
Every seaman is not only a navigator, but a merchant and also a soldier.
– William Petty
For if the price of diamonds should rise in Persia, it shall also rise preceptably in England, for the great merchants all the world over do know one another, do correspond, and are partners in most of the considerable pieces, and do use great confederacy and intrigue in buying and selling them.
– William Petty
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
Husbandmen, seamen, soldiers, artizans and merchants are the very pillars of any commonwealth; all the other professions do rise out of the infirmities and miscarriages of these.
– William Petty
I hope no man takes what I said about the living and dieing of men for mathematical demonstration.
– William Petty
I make this question, whether, since they do all live by begging... it were not better for the state to keep them.
– William Petty
If great cities are naturally apt to remove their seats, I ask, which way? I say, in the case of London it must be westward... If it follow from hence that the palaces of the greatest men will remove westward, it will also naturally follow that the dwelling of others who depend upon them will creep after them.
– William Petty
In the next place, it will be asked, who shall pay these men? I answer, everybody.
– William Petty
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
It were good to know the geometrical content, figure and situation of all the lands of a kingdom, especially according to its most natural bounds.
– William Petty
Money is the best rule of commerce.
– William Petty
No man pays double or twice for the same thing, forasmuch as nothing can be spent but once.
– William Petty
Now, forasmuch as princes are not only powerful but rich, according to a number of people (hands being the Father as lands are the Mother or Womb of Wealth), it is no wonder why states by encouraging marriage, advance their own interests.
– William Petty
One cause of publick charge in matters of religion is the not having changed the limits of parishes and cures... For now when the ministers of the gospel preach unto multitudes assembled in one place, may not parishes be bigger?
– William Petty
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
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
The full understanding of the nature of Money, the effects of the various species of Coins, and of their uncertain values, as also of raising or embasing them, is a learning most proper for Ireland, which hath been lately much and often abused for the want of it.
– William Petty
The general observation is that the city of London moves westward. Where the consumption of commodity is. viz.: among the gentry, the vendors of the same must seat themselves.
– William Petty
The trade of banks is the buying and selling of interest and exchange.
– William Petty
We incline, therefore, to think the parishes should be equal or near, because in the reformed religion the principal use of a church is to preach in.
– William Petty
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
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
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