David Ricardo

"The growth of a nation's wealth is limited only by the productivity of its labor and the amount of capital available."

"The creation of machinery displaces labor but ultimately leads to lower prices and greater consumption."

"The laws of political economy are as certain and determinate as the laws of physics."

"Demand and supply are the regulating principles of all commerce."

"The prosperity of any nation depends not on the abundance of money, but on the abundance of commodities and the efficiency of production."

"The value of a commodity is determined not by its utility alone, but by the cost of production."

"Capital must be accumulated before it can be productively employed."

"The extension of trade is beneficial to all nations, rich and poor alike."

"The natural tendency of competitive capitalism is toward equilibrium and stability."

"Labor is the source of all wealth and the measure of all value."

"The improvement of machinery, though beneficial to society, may be temporarily injurious to the working classes."

"Political economy is the science which investigates the nature and causes of the wealth of nations."

"The accumulation of capital is the engine of economic progress and social improvement."

"Rent arises from the operation of natural causes acting on land and capital."

"The rate of profit depends on the ratio of capital to output and the efficiency of production."

"The prosperity of a nation is measured not by the amount of money it possesses, but by the quantity of commodities it produces."

"Each individual, in pursuing his own interest, naturally promotes the interest of society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it."

"The division of labor increases the productivity of labor and the accumulation of capital."

"The tendency of profits to fall is one of the most important laws of political economy."

"Capital is the key to economic growth, development, and the improvement of the human condition."

"Trade between nations increases the total wealth of the world and benefits all participating nations."

"Comparative advantage, not absolute advantage, determines the pattern of international trade."

"The natural price of labour is that price which is necessary to enable the labourers, one with another, to subsist and perpetuate their race."

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

"It is the comparative, not the absolute quantity of labour, that regulates the exchangeability of commodities."

"The produce of the earth is divided among three classes of the community; namely, the proprietor of the land, the owner of stock or capital necessary for its cultivation, and the labourers by whose industry it is cultivated."

"Wages naturally rise and fall according to the demand for labour and the cost of living."

"The interest of the landlord is always opposed to the interest of the consumer and manufacturer."

"If a commodity were in the same proportions to the demand for it, as labour, wages would never rise above a bare subsistence."

"The principle which I have attempted to establish is this—That commodities are valuable in proportion to the labour which has been bestowed upon them."