Top 32 David Ricardo Quotes (ECONOMIST)

7 David Ricardo Quotes on Money and Wealth

Neither a state nor a bank ever have had unrestricted power of issuing paper money without abusing that power.

Taxation under every form presents but a choice of evils.

The demand for money is regulated entirely by its value, and its value by its quantity. — The demand for **money** is regulated entirely by its value, and its value by its quantity.

The rise or fall of wages is common to all states of society, whether it be the stationary, the advancing, or the retrograde state.

In the same manner if any nation wasted part of its wealth, or lost part of its trade, it could not retain the same quantity of circulating medium which it before possessed. — In the same manner if any nation wasted part of its **wealth**, or lost part of its trade, it could not retain the same quantity of circulating medium which it before possessed.

Money is neither a material to work upon nor a tool to work with. — **Money** is neither a material to work upon nor a tool to work with.

The diminution of money in one country, and its increase in another, do not operate on the price of one commodity only, but on the prices of all.

8 David Ricardo Quotes on Profits

“Profits might also increase, because improvements might take place in agriculture, or in the implements of husbandry, which would augment the produce with the same cost of production.”
David Ricardo

Nothing contributes so much to the prosperity and happiness of a country as high profits. — Nothing contributes so much to the **prosperity** and **happiness** of a country as high profits.

There can be no rise in the value of labour without a fall of profits.

There is no way of keeping profits up but by keeping wages down.

The farmer and manufacturer can no more live without profit than the labourer without wages.

Profits are not made by differential cleverness, but by differential stupidity.

If a tax on malt would raise the price of beer, a tax on bread must raise the price of bread.

The facility of obtaining food is beneficial in two ways to the owners of capital, it at the same time raises profits and increases the amount of consumable commodities.

3 David Ricardo Quotes on Gold and Silver

“Gold and silver are no doubt subject to fluctuations, from the discovery of new and more abundant mines; but such discoveries are rare, and their effects, though powerful, are limited to periods of comparatively short duration.”
David Ricardo

Gold, on the contrary, though of little use compared with air or water, will exchange for a great quantity of other goods. — **Gold**, on the contrary, though of little use compared with air or water, will exchange for a great quantity of other goods.

“Gold and silver, like other commodities, have an intrinsic value, which is not arbitrary, but is dependent on their scarcity, the quantity of labour bestowed in procuring them, and the value of the capital employed in the mines which produce them.”
David Ricardo

5 David Ricardo Quotes on Supply and Demand (ECONOMIC)

“It is here we come to the heart of the matter. The economic principle of comparative advantage’, ‘a country may, in return for manufactured commodities, import corn even if it can be grown with less labour than in the country from which it is imported.”
David Ricardo

Again two manufacturers may employ the same amount of fixed, and the same amount of circulating capital; but the durability of their fixed capitals may be very unequal.

The exchangeable value of all commodities, rises as the difficulties of their production increase.

There can be no greater error than in supposing that capital is increased by non-consumption.

“After all the fertile land in the immediate neighbourhood of the first settlers were cultivated, if capital and population increased, more food would be required, and it could only be procured from land not so advantageously situated.”
David Ricardo

7 David Ricardo Quotes on Labour and Wages

“If a commodity were in no way useful, – in other words, if it could in no way contribute to our gratification, – it would be destitute of exchangeable value, however scarce it might be, or whatever quantity of labour might be necessary to procure it.”
David Ricardo

Labour, like all other things which are purchased and sold… has its natural and its market price.

Like all other contracts, wages should be left to the fair and free competition of the market, and should never be controlled by the interference of the legislature.

A rise in wages, from an alteration in the value of money, produces a general effect on price, and for that reason it produces no real effect whatever on profits. — A rise in wages, from an alteration in the value of **money**, produces a general effect on price, and for that reason it produces no real effect whatever on profits.

The proportions, too, in which the capital that is to support labour, and the capital that is invested in tools, machinery and buildings, may be variously combined.

But a rise in the wages of labour would not equally affect commodities produced with machinery quickly consumed, and commodities produced with machinery slowly consumed.

“It is not by the absolute quantity of produce obtained by either class, that we can correctly judge of the rate of profit, rent, and wages, but by the quantity of labour required to obtain that produce.”
David Ricardo