William Stanley Jevons Quotes

Value is the most invincible and impalpable of ghosts, and comes and goes unthought of, while the visible and dense matter remains as it was.

A little experience is worth much argument; a few facts are better than any theory.

Economists can never be free of from difficulties unless they will distinguish between a theory and the application of a theory.

The difficulties of economics are mainly the difficulties of conceiving clearly and fully the conditions of utility.

we often observe that there is abundance of capital to be had at low rates of interest, while there are also large numbers of artisans starving for want of employment.

As a general rule, it is foolish to do just what other people are doing, because there are almost sure to be too many people doing the same thing.

Logic should no longer be considered an elegant and learned accomplishment; it should take its place as an indispensable study for every well-informed person.

The theory which follows is entirely based on a calculus of pleasure and pain; and the object of economics is to maximize happiness by purchasing pleasure, as it were, at the lowest cost of pain.

but, in reality, there is no such thing as an exact science.

A correct theory is the first step towards improvement, by showing what we need and what we might accomplish.

The point of equilibrium will be known by the criterion that an infinitely small amount of commodity exchanged in addition, at the same rate, will bring neither gain nor loss of utility.

Science arises from the discovery of Identity amid Diversity.

All classes of society are trade unionists at heart, and differ chiefly in the boldness, ability, and secrecy with which they pursue their respective interests.

It is clear that economics, if it is to be a science at all, must be a mathematical science.

The calculus of utility aims at supplying the ordinary wants of man at the least cost of labour.

Some of the gold possessed by the Romans is doubtless mixed with what we now possess; and some small part of it will be handed down as long as the human race exists.

Logic is not only an exact science, but is the most simple and elementary of all sciences; it ought therefore undoubtedly to find some place in every course of education.

An isolated man like Alexander Selkirk might feel the benefit of a stock of provisions, tools and other means of facilitating industry, although cut off from traffic, with other men.

I feel quite unable to adopt the opinion that the moment goods pass into the possession of the consumer they cease altogether to have the attributes of capital.

By a commodity we shall understand any object, substance, action or service, which can afford pleasure or ward off pain.

There are many portions of economical doctrine which appear to me as scientific in form as they are consonant with facts.

It isrequisite from time to time to remind one generation of the experience which led a former generation to important legislative actions.

A spade may be made of any size, and if the same number of strokes be made in the hour, the requisite exertion will vary nearly as the cube of the length of the blade.

I consider that interest is determined by the increment of produce which it enables a labourer to obtain, and is altogether independent of the total return which he receives for this labour.

We shall never have a science of economics unless we learn to discern the operation of law even among the most perplexing complications and apparent interruptions.

In any case I hold that there must arise a science of the development of economic forms and relations.

The child which overbalances itself in learning to walk is experimenting on the law of gravity.

One pound invested for five years gives the same result as five pounds invested for one year, the product being five pound years.

Over-production is not possible in all branches of industry at once, but it is possible in some as compared to others.

What capital I give for the spade merely replaces what the manufacturer had already invested in the expectation that the spade would be needed.

Capital simply allows us to expend labour in advance.

One of the first and most difficult steps in a science is to conceive clearly the nature of the magnitudes about which we are arguing.

Repeated reflection and inquiry have led me to the somewhat novel opinion, that value depends entirely upon utility.

Property is only another name for monopoly.

The theory of Economics must begin with a correct theory of consumption.