Turgot Quotes & Sayings

Morality in the general is well enough known by men, but the particular refinements of virtue are unknown by most persons; thus the majority of parents, without knowing it and without intending it, give very bad examples to their children. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

Why can't you give me a straight answer?"
"Why can't you ride me like a pony?" He scowled straight back at her, unrepentant. "Don't pretty girls like ponies? I thought they did. — Kylie Scott

The young man [Turgot] destined for an ecclesiastical career was placed within walls carefully designed to keep out all currents of new thought; his studies, his reading, his professors, his associates, all were combined to keep from him any results of observation or reflection save those prescribed: probably, of all means for stifling healthy and helpful thought, a theological seminary, as then conducted whether Catholic or Protestant, Jewish or Mohammedan, was the most perfect. — Andrew Dickson White

The whole mass of humanity ... marches constantly, though slowly, toward greater perfection. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

All men now allow that if any human power could have stemmed the avalanche of the French Revolution, it would have been the reforms of Turgot. — Evelyn Beatrice Hall

Gold and silver are constituted, by the nature of things, money, and universal money, independent of all convention, and of all laws. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

For similar folly, our own country, in the transition from the colonial period, also paid a fearful price; and from a like catastrophe the United States has been twice saved in our time by the arguments formulated by Turgot. — Andrew Dickson White

Scrupulous people are not suited to great affairs. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

A couple of girls I've signed autographs for have just cried or broken out into tears. — Chaske Spencer

Eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis. He snatched the lightning from the sky and the sceptre from tyrants. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

His [Turgot's] first important literary and scholastic effort was a treatise On the Existence of God. Few fragments of it remain, but we are helped to understand him when we learn that he asserted, and to the end of his life maintained, his belief in an Almighty Creator and Upholder of the Universe. It did, indeed, at a later period suit the purposes of his enemies, exasperated by his tolerant spirit and his reforming plans, to proclaim him an atheist; but that sort of charge has been the commonest of missiles against troublesome thinkers in all times. — Andrew Dickson White

Every soil does not produce every material. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

After Montesquieu, the next great addition to Sociology (which is the term I may be allowed to invent to designate Social Physics) was made by Condorcet, proceeding on the views suggested by his illustrious friend Turgot. — Auguste Comte

Eripuit coele fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis," or from Latin to English "He snatched the lightning from the skies and the scepter from the tyrants. Jacques Turgot — Nye

All money is essentially merchandize. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

All merchandize has the two essential properties of money, to measure and to represent all value: and in this sense all merchandize is money. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

The earth has been cultivated before it has been divided; the cultivation itself having been the only motive for a division, and for that law which secures to every one his property. For the first persons who have employed themselves in cultivation, have probably worked as much land as their strength would permit, and, consequently, more than was necessary for their own nourishment. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

All is more or less proper to serve as a common measure, in proportion as it is more or less in general use, of a more similar quality, and more easy to be divided into aliquot parts. All is more or less applicable for the purpose of a general pledge of exchange, in proportion as it is less susceptible of decay or alteration in quantity or quality. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

Turgot turned out to be correct regarding this chilling prophecy: "War we ought to shun as the greatest of evils, since it will render impossible for a very long time, and perhaps forever, the reform which is absolutely necessary for the prosperity of the State and for the relief of the people." In other words, every cent the French government spent on guns for the Americans was another centime it would not have to spend on butter for the starving peasants who would one day storm Versailles. The — Sarah Vowell

The expenses of government, having for their object the interests of all, should be borne by every one, and the more a man enjoys the advantages of society, the more he ought to hold himself honoured in contributing to these expenses. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

A heart so pure it was nothing but storm. — Benjamin Alire Saenz

Respect is tendered with pleasure only where it is not exacted. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

I live in a kind of gay bubble. I live in a gay house, I drive a gay car. I eat gay food. — Julian Clary

If the land was divided among all the inhabitants of a country, so that each of them possessed precisely the quantity necessary for his support, and nothing more; it is evident that all of them being equal, no one would work for another. Neither would any of them possess wherewith to pay another for his labour, for each person having only such a quantity of land as was necessary to produce a subsistence, would consume all he should gather, and would not have any thing to give in exchange for the labour of others. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

I have always said I was Bob Marley reincarnated, — Snoop Dogg

It is not error which opposes the progress of truth; it is indolence, obstinacy, the spirit of routine, every thing which favors inaction. — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

The moment one begins thinking about morality in terms of well-being, it becomes remarkably easy to discern a moral hierarchy across human societies. — Sam Harris

If gratitude, when exerted towards another, naturally produces a very pleasing sensation in the mind of a grateful man, it exalts the soul into rapture when it is employed on this great object of gratitude to the beneficent Being who has given us everything we already possess, and from whom we expect everything we yet hope for. — Joseph Addison

Always trust your heart. It never tells you lie. — Karla M. Nashar