Some people make stuff; other people have to buy it. And when we gave up making stuff, starting in the 1980s, we were left with the unique role of buying.

No nation was ever ruined by trade.

More pernicious nonsense was never devised by man than treaties of commerce.

The money market is to a commercial nation what the heart is to man.

The money we have is the means to liberty; that which we pursue is the means to slavery.

Commerce has made all winds her ministers.

Everyone lives by selling something.

Honest commerce is the great civilizer. We exchange ideas when we exchange fabrics.

Trade’s proud empire hastes to swift decay.

A merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind, but there is nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind.

You must not grow used to making money out of everything. One sees more people ruined than one has seen preserved by shameful gains.

Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand.

A merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing wrong.