Adam Smith

“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”

“By pursuing his own interest (the individual) frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those w...”

“What can be added to the happiness of man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?”

“Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against t...”

“The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Avarice over-rates the difference...”

“There is a great deal of ruin in a nation.”

“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.”

“The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts, and persist in doing so, generation after generation, through all changes of opinion and detail, is the one that must rule all observ...”

“What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?”

“I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.”

“To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.”

“Great ambition, the desire of real superiority, of leading and directing, seems to be altogether peculiar to man, and speech is the great instrument of ambition.”

“On the road from the City of Skepticism, I had to pass through the Valley of Ambiguity.”

“Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another.”

“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.”

“The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.”

“Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.”

“This is one of those cases in which the imagination is baffled by the facts.”

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”

“It is not by augmenting the capital of the country, but by rendering a greater part of that capital active and productive than would otherwise be so, that the most judicious operations of ba...”