Adam Smith Quotes

Adam Smith Quotes

Here are some quotes of Adam Smith you may like to read.

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

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

“ 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. ”

“ All money is a matter of belief. ”

“ Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man. ”

“ Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse. ”

“ Problems worthy of attacks, prove their worth by hitting back ”

“ The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer. ”

“ Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Defense is superior to opulence. ”

“ Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself. ”

“ No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. ”

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

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

“ Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience. ”

“ Nothing is more graceful than habitual cheerfulness. ”

“ Every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of human life. ”

“ Virtue is excellence, something uncommonly great and beautiful, which rises far above what is vulgar and ordinary. ”

“ The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals. ”

“ Every man lives by exchanging.”

“ No complaint is more common than that of a scarcity of money. ”

“ To superficial minds, the vices of the great seem at all times agreeable. ”

“ With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches. ”

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

“ 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. ”

“ Labor was the first price, the original purchase – money that was paid for all things. ”

“ Resentment seems to have been given us by nature for a defense, and for a defense only! It is the safeguard of justice and the security of innocence. ”

“ Labour was the first price, the original purchase – money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased. ”

“ Adventure upon all the tickets in the lottery, and you lose for certain; and the greater the number of your tickets the nearer your approach to this certainty. ”

“ The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer. ”

“ Corn is a necessary, silver is only a superfluity. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion. ”

“ A merchant, it has been said very properly, is not necessarily the citizen of any particular country. ”

“ In ease of body, peace of mind, all the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level and the beggar who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for. ”

“ The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition is so powerful that it is alone, and without any assistance, capable not only of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting 100 impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations. ”

“ The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments. ”

“ Goods can serve many other purposes besides purchasing money, but money can serve no other purpose besides purchasing goods. ”

“ The world neither ever saw, nor ever will see, a perfectly fair lottery. ”

“ An instructed and intelligent people are always more decent and orderly than an ignorant and stupid one. ”

“ Great nations are never impoverished by private, though they sometimes are by public prodigality and misconduct. ”

“ An instructed and intelligent people are always more decent and orderly than an ignorant and stupid one. ”

“ Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good. ”

“ 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 ”

“ All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind. ”

“ The problem with fiat money is that it rewards the minority that can handle money, but fools the generation that has worked and saved money. ”

“ We are but one of the multitude, in no respect better than any other in it ”

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

“ The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it. ”

“ Every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of human life. ”

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