David Ricardo

"Improvements in machinery, though they ultimately benefit the laborer, tend to diminish the demand for labor in the immediate term."

"A nation may be so enriched by foreign commerce as to have increased wealth, while the natural produce of the soil may have diminished."

"Gold and silver are commodities whose value is determined by the same principles as other commodities, by the difficulty of their production."

"The rent of land is determined by the excess of its produce above what is required to feed the laborers employed upon it."

"Trade between nations is mutually beneficial when each country specializes in what it can produce most efficiently."

"The value of labor is not fixed but varies with the circumstances of society and the supply of workers."

"A man becomes rich by taking advantage of the comparative advantages his nation possesses in production."

"The science of political economy may be defined as the science which treats of the nature, production, and distribution of wealth."

"When the capital of a country increases, it tends to produce a greater effect on wages than on profits."

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

"If a commodity could be made by labor alone, and with the aid of perfectly durable machines, its price would be wholly regulated by the quantity of labor."

"The great question is how to distribute the annual produce of a nation among the different classes of society."

"A country which exports the precious metals in exchange for necessaries has acted wisely in economizing its capital."

"Taxation cannot be so arranged as to fall equally upon all classes without producing some degree of inequality."

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

"Nothing is more certain than that the low price of commodities and the low price of labor are the principal causes of extensive commerce."

"The true theory of rent is one of the most important and most difficult points in political economy."

"The value which the precious metals possess is due to their scarcity and the labor required to obtain them."

"It is the comparative, not the absolute, facility of production that determines the exchange of commodities."

"A man who possesses a capital of £1000 and no land can employ his capital to the greatest advantage only by renting land."

"The profits of the farmer are diminished by every increase in the real price of labor that is not accompanied by an increase in the price of raw produce."

"To accumulate capital is to augment the means of production, and therefore to increase the productive power of labor."

"The cheapness of corn and the high price of labor tend naturally to promote the interests of the farmer."

"Political economy is the study of mankind not in their social affections but as creatures of self-interest."

"The rate of profit depends not on the absolute quantity of labor saved, but on the proportion of the capital saved."

"If the demand for labor continues to increase, so will the rate of wages rise, regardless of the increase in population."

"The accumulation of capital must precede the accumulation of land in any country advancing towards wealth."

"The greatest improvements in the productive powers of labor have been the effects of the division of labor."

"A monopoly in the supply of necessaries gives to those who possess it the power to raise prices to any extent."

"The value of a thing can be known only by referring to the labor necessary to produce it under conditions of perfect competition."