François Quesnay
French economist who created the Tableau Économique, modeling economic flows.
Most quoted
"Let there be full freedom of commerce; for the surest, the most exact, the most profitable, to the nation and to the sovereign, internal and external police of commerce, is the freedom of competition."
— from Tableau Économique, 1758
"The nation is reduced to three classes of citizens: the productive class, the sterile class, and the proprietary class."
— from Tableau Économique, 1758
"The sterile class is composed of all citizens occupied in other services and works than those of agriculture."
— from Tableau Économique, 1758
All quotes by François Quesnay (105)
The comeback to mercantilists: your gold is but dross without bread.
Science of wealth: study the plow, not the purse.
Letters to friends reveal: true joy in harmonious production.
Interviews with disciples: the net product illuminates all.
Art imitates nature; economics must emulate it.
Aphorism: Land yields, man divides.
Key passage: The advance of the productive class sustains the whole.
Excerpt from letter: Urge the king to free the markets.
Speech: Physiocracy is the light of true governance.
Observation: Cycles of harvest teach eternal truths.
Reflection: Life is the soil from which wealth springs.
Joke: Why do economists farm? To reap what they sow in theory.
Comeback: To Colbert's ghost – your colbertine is but sterile cloth.
Famous saying: Nature's law is the highest law.
Passage: The tableau shows the interdependence of classes.
Correspondence: My dear Mirabeau, agriculture alone ennobles.
Excerpt: In China, despotism serves the natural order well.
Last words variant: The produce... continues...
Remark: Sterile pursuits amuse but do not sustain.
Observation: The single tax simplifies the chaos of levies.
Contemporaries of François Quesnay
Other Economicss born within 50 years of François Quesnay (1694–1774).