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William Stanley Jevons
67 quotes
“You will perceive that economy, scientifically speaking, is a very contracted science; it is in fact a sort of vague mathematics which calculates the causes and effects of man's industry, and shows how it may be best applied. There are a multitude of allied branches of knowledge connected with mans condition; the relation of these to political economy is analogous to the connexion of mechanics, astronomy, optics, sound, heat, and every other branch more or less of physical science, with pure mathematics.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) first seen 1858 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Henrietta Jevons (28 February 1858), published in Letters and Journal of W. Stanley Jevons (1886), edited by Harriet A. Jevons, his wife, p. 101.
“When quite young I can remember I had no thought or wish of surpassing others. I was rather taken with a liking of little arts and bits of learning. My mother carefully fostered a liking for botany, giving me a small microscope and many books, which I yet have. Strange as it may seem, I now believe that botany and the natural system, by exercising discrimination of kinds, is the best of logical exercises. What I may do in logic is perhaps derived from that early attention to botany.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) first seen 1862 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reflections on his earlier life, written when he was 27 (December 1862), published in Letters and Journal of W. Stanley Jevons (1886), edited by Harriet A. Jevons, his wife, p. 11.
“I used to think I should like to be a bookbinder or bookseller it seemed to me a most delightful trade and I wished or thought of nothing better. More lately I thought I should be a minister, it seemed so serious and useful a profession, and I entered but little into the merits of religion and the duties of a minister. Every one dissuaded me from the notion, and before I arrived at any age to require a real decision, science had claimed me.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) first seen 1862 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reflections on his earlier life, written when he was 27 (December 1862), published in Letters and Journal of W. Stanley Jevons (1886), edited by Harriet A. Jevons, his wife, p. 12.
“I need hardly stay to demonstrate that facts are valueless unless connected and explained by a correct theory; that analogies are very dangerous grounds of inference, unless carefully founded on similar conditions; and that experience misleads if it be misinterpreted.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Railways and the State." In Essays and Addresses, Macmillan & Co., 1874, page 467.
“Coal in truth stands not beside, but entirely above, all other commodities. It is the material source of the energy of the country—the universal aid—the factor in everything we do. With coal almost any feat is possible or easy; without it we are thrown back into the laborious poverty of earlier times.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is very commonly urged, that the failing supply of coal will be met by new modes of using it efficiently and economically. ...It is wholly a confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to a diminished consumption. The very contrary is the truth.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Commerce is but a means to an end, the diffusion of civilization and wealth. To allow commerce to proceed until the source of civilization is weakened and overturned is like killing the goose to get the golden egg. Is the immediate creation of material wealth to be our only object?”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Have we not hereditary possessions in our just laws, our free and nobly developed constitution, our rich literature and philosophy, incomparably above material wealth, and which we are beyond all things bound to maintain, improve, and hand down in safety? And do we accomplish this duty in encouraging a growth of industry which must prove unstable, and perhaps involve all things in its fall?”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All acts of reasoning seem to me to be different cases of one uniform process which may perhaps be best described as the substitution of similars. ..The chief difficulty consists in showing that all the forms of the old logic, as well as the fundamental rules of mathematical reasoning, may be explained upon the same principle; and it is to this difficult task I have devoted the most attention.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The new and wonderful results of the late Dr. Boole's mathematical system of Logic appear to develop themselves as most plain and evident consequences of the self-same process of substitution, when applied to the Primary Laws of Thought. Should my notion be true, a vast mass of technicalities may be swept from our logical text-books, and yet the small remaining part of logical doctrine will prove far more useful than all the learning of the Schoolmen.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Aristotle's dictim... may then be formulated somewhat as follows:—Whatever is known of a term may be stated of its equal or equivalent. Or, in other words, Whatever is true of a thing is true of its like. ...the value of the formula must be judged by its results; ...it not only brings into harmony all the branches of logical doctrine, but... unites them in close analogy to the corresponding parts of mathematical method. All acts of mathematical reasoning may... be considered but as applications of a corresponding axiom of quantity...”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Logic is not only an exact science, but is the most simple and elementary of all sciences; it ought therefore undoubtedly to find some place in every course of education.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Logic should no longer be considered an elegant and learned accomplishment; it should take its place as an indispensable study for every well-informed person.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The laws of thought are natural laws with which we have no power to interfere, and which are of course not to be in any way confused with the artificial laws of a country, which are invented by men and can be altered by them. Every science is occupied in detecting and describing the natural laws which are inflexibly observed by the objects treated in the Science.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are many portions of economical doctrine which appear to me as scientific in form as they are consonant with facts.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In this work I have attempted to treat economy as a calculus of pleasure and pain, and have sketched out,almost irrespective of previous opinions, the form which the science,as it seems to me, must ultimately take.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A correspondent, Captain Charles Christie R.E., to whom I have shown these sections after they were printed, objects reasonably enough that commodity should not have been represented by M, or Mass, but by some symbol, for instance Q, which would include quantity of space or time or force, in fact almost any kind of quantity.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In short, I do not write for mathematicians, nor as a mathematician, but as an economist wishing to convince other economists that their science can only be satisfactorily treated on an explicitly mathematical basis.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Among minor alterations, I may mention the substitution for the name political economy of the single convenient term economics. I cannot help thinking that it would be well to discard, as quickly as possible, the old troublesome double-worded name of our science.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In any case I hold that there must arise a science of the development of economic forms and relations.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As there are so many who talk prose without knowing it, or, again, who syllogize without having the least idea what a syllogism is, so economists have long been mathematicians without being aware of the fact.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: William Stanley Jevons, The Theory of Political Economy (1871). Preface To The Second Edition, p. 14.
“The conclusion to which I am ever more clearly coming is that the only hope of attaining a true system of economics is to fling aside,once and forever, the mazy and preposterous assumptions of the Ricardian school. Our English economists have been living in a fool's paradise. The truth is with the French school, and the sooner we recognize the fact, the better it will be for all the world, except perhaps the few writers who are far too committed to the old erroneous doctrines to allow for renunciation.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Property is only another name for monopoly.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thus monopoly is limited by competition, and no owner, whether of labour, land or capital, can, theoretically speaking,obtain a larger share of produce for it than what other owners of exactly the same kind of property are willing to accept.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no such thing as absolute cost of labour; it is all a matter of comparison. Every one gets the most which he can for his exertions; some can get little or nothing, because they have not sufficient strength, knowledge or ingenuity; others get much, because they have, comparatively speaking, a monopoly of certain powers.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Repeated reflection and inquiry have led me to the somewhat novel opinion, that value depends entirely upon utility.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is clear that economics, if it is to be a science at all, must be a mathematical science.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“but, in reality, there is no such thing as an exact science.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Previous to the time of Pascal, who would have thought of measuring doubt and belief? Who could have conceived that the investigation of petty games of chance would have led to the most sublime branch of mathematical science - the theory of probabilities?”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A correct theory is the first step towards improvement, by showing what we need and what we might accomplish.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The theory which follows is entirely based on a calculus of pleasure and pain; and the object of economics is to maximize happiness by purchasing pleasure, as it were, at the lowest cost of pain.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The calculus of utility aims at supplying the ordinary wants of man at the least cost of labour.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“PLEASURE and pain are undoubtedly the ultimate objects of the calculus of economics. To satisfy our wants to the utmost with the least effort - to procure the greatest amount of what is desirable at the expense of the least that is undesirable - in other words, to maximize pleasure, is the problem of economics.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By a commodity we shall understand any object, substance, action or service, which can afford pleasure or ward off pain.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My principal work now lies in tracing out the exact nature and conditions of utility. It seems strange indeed that economists have not bestowed more minute attention on a subject which doubtless furnishes the true key to the problems of economics.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the first and most difficult steps in a science is to conceive clearly the nature of the magnitudes about which we are arguing.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The difficulties of economics are mainly the difficulties of conceiving clearly and fully the conditions of utility.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“that in the same open market, at any one moment, there cannot be two prices for the same kind of article,”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Economists can never be free of from difficulties unless they will distinguish between a theory and the application of a theory.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We shall never have a science of economics unless we learn to discern the operation of law even among the most perplexing complications and apparent interruptions.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Over-production is not possible in all branches of industry at once, but it is possible in some as compared to others.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A spade may be made of any size, and if the same number of strokes be made in the hour, the requisite exertion will vary nearly as the cube of the length of the blade.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ina regular and constant employment the greatest result will always be gained by such a rate as allows a workman each day,or each week at the most, to recover all fatigue and recommence with an undiminished store of energy.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An isolated man like Alexander Selkirk might feel the benefit of a stock of provisions, tools and other means of facilitating industry, although cut off from traffic, with other men.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Capital simply allows us to expend labour in advance.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What capital I give for the spade merely replaces what the manufacturer had already invested in the expectation that the spade would be needed.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One pound invested for five years gives the same result as five pounds invested for one year, the product being five pound years.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The whole result of continued labour is not often consumed and enjoyed in a moment; the result generally lasts for a certain length of time. We must then conceive the capital as being progressively uninvested.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some of the gold possessed by the Romans is doubtless mixed with what we now possess; and some small part of it will be handed down as long as the human race exists.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I consider that interest is determined by the increment of produce which it enables a labourer to obtain, and is altogether independent of the total return which he receives for this labour.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source