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 More Quotes by William Stanley Jevons More Quotes From William Stanley Jevons It seems perfectly clear that Economy, if it is to be a science at all, must be a mathematical science. There exists much prejudice against attempts to introduce the methods and language of mathematics into any branch of the moral sciences. Most persons appear to hold that the physical sciences form the proper sphere of mathematical method, and that the moral sciences demand some other method-I know not what. William Stanley Jevons spheresprejudicescience 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 motherbelieveart 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 racegoldlong 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 decisionrealthinking 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 politicalnamesthinking 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 mathematicalwishwriting There are many portions of economical doctrine which appear to me as scientific in form as they are consonant with facts. William Stanley Jevons doctrineformfacts The whole value of science consists in the power which it confers upon us of applying to one object the knowledge acquired from like objects; and it is only so far, therefore, as we can discover and register resemblances that we can turn our observations to account. William Stanley Jevons observationscienceknowledge 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 expectationswould-begiving 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 logiccoursessimple In matters of philosophy and science authority has ever been the great opponent of truth. A despotic calm is usually the triumph of error. In the republic of the sciences sedition and even anarchy are beneficial in the long run to the greatest happiness of the greatest number. William Stanley Jevons errorsrunningphilosophy 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 knowinglongideas Capital simply allows us to expend labour in advance. William Stanley Jevons labour 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 foolforeverschool Property is only another name for monopoly. William Stanley Jevons propertymonopolynames 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 cuttingmenmean 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 arguingstepsfirsts By a commodity we shall understand any object, substance, action or service, which can afford pleasure or ward off pain. William Stanley Jevons painsubstanceaction 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 employmenteach-dayenergy 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 costmatterlittles
