Nassau William Senior
British economist who introduced abstinence theory of interest.
Most quoted
"The only mode by which the condition of the labouring classes can be permanently improved, is by increasing the proportion which the capital of the country bears to the number of the labourers."
— from An Outline of the Science of Political Economy, 1836
"The desire to obtain wealth, and to avoid poverty, is, next to the desire of preserving life, the strongest incentive to exertion which Providence has implanted in the human breast."
— from An Outline of the Science of Political Economy, 1836
"The principal causes which regulate the rate of profit are the productiveness of labour, and the proportion which the capital of the country bears to the number of the labourers."
— from An Outline of the Science of Political Economy, 1836
All quotes by Nassau William Senior (98)
The population question is one of the most pressing in our age.
Free trade is the doctrine of peace and plenty.
The Irish famine reveals the horrors of dependence on a single crop.
Happiness consists in the full employment of our faculties.
Gold is the measure of value, but not the source of it.
The progress of society depends on the accumulation of capital.
Taxes should be levied with the least possible interference with industry.
The love of gain is the chief motive to industry.
Reform the poor laws, or they will reform society to its ruin.
Philosophy teaches us to act, not to talk.
The economist must be impartial, like the mathematician.
Wages rise with the demand for labor, not with its supply alone.
Ireland's woes stem from absentee landlords and lack of enterprise.
The state should not interfere with the natural course of trade.
Life's greatest joy is in useful employment.
Rent is the reward of the original powers of the soil.
The poor are not idle by choice, but by necessity.
Capital is accumulated labor, the offspring of abstinence.
In economics, as in physics, laws are general and invariable.
My dear friend, the pursuit of knowledge is the highest pleasure.
Contemporaries of Nassau William Senior
Other Economicss born within 50 years of Nassau William Senior (1790–1864).