A correct theory is the first step towards improvement, by showing what we need and what we might accomplish. William Stanley Jevons More Quotes by William Stanley Jevons More Quotes From William Stanley Jevons 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 effort pain want As a general rule, it is foolish to do just what other people are doing, because there are almost sure to be too many people doing the same thing. William Stanley Jevons foolish people Economists can never be free of from difficulties unless they will distinguish between a theory and the application of a theory. William Stanley Jevons economist difficulty theory A little experience is worth much argument; a few facts are better than any theory. William Stanley Jevons argument littles facts The difficulties of economics are mainly the difficulties of conceiving clearly and fully the conditions of utility. William Stanley Jevons conceiving economics difficulty The point of equilibrium will be known by the criterion that an infinitely small amount of commodity exchanged in addition, at the same rate, will bring neither gain nor loss of utility. William Stanley Jevons commodity gains loss 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. William Stanley Jevons causes may men Value is the most invincible and impalpable of ghosts, and comes and goes unthought of, while the visible and dense matter remains as it was. William Stanley Jevons dense ghost matter but, in reality, there is no such thing as an exact science. William Stanley Jevons stressors exact-sciences reality 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 logic accomplishment study Fertility of imagination and abundance of guesses at truth are among the first requisites of discovery; but the erroneous guesses must almost of necessity be many times as numerous as those which prove well founded. William Stanley Jevons fertility imagination discovery 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 economics cost pain 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 keys attention lying The calculus of utility aims at supplying the ordinary wants of man at the least cost of labour. William Stanley Jevons cost ordinary men 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 political sound knowledge Truth indeed is sacred; but, as Pilate said, "What is truth?" Show us the undoubted infallible criterion of absolute truth, and we will hold it as a sacred inviolable thing. But in the absence of that infallible criterion, we have all an equal right to grope about in our search of it, and no body and no school nor clique must be allowed to set up a standard of orthodoxy which shall bar the freedom of scientific inquiry. William Stanley Jevons sacred body school 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 confused men country 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 pounds giving years I protest against deference to any man, whether John Stuart Mill, or Adam Smith, or Aristotle, being allowed to check inquiry. Our science has become far too much a stagnant one, in which opinions rather than experience and reason are appealed to. William Stanley Jevons inquiry too-much men It is clear that economics, if it is to be a science at all, must be a mathematical science. William Stanley Jevons economics math science
