Adam Smith

The attention of the public is always much more forcibly attracted by the vices and follies of the great, than by their virtues and their wisdom.

The wages of labour are the encouragement of industry, which, like every other human quality, improves in proportion to the encouragement it receives.

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.

The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding or to exercise his invention.

The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.

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.

The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.

The natural price of labour is that price which is necessary to enable the labourers, one with another, to subsist and to perpetuate their race, without either increase or diminution.

The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the necessary effect, so it is the natural symptom of increasing national wealth.

Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.

The desire of food is not to be gratified in order to obtain wealth, but the desire of wealth in order to gratify the desire of food.

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

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

Where there is a great deal of property, there is great inequality. For one very rich man, there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many.

The desire of riches, and the contempt of poverty, are the great and most universal causes of corruption of morals.

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

The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers.

The learned, however, though they may not be the greatest wits, are always the best company.

The desire of appearing to be wealthy, may be called the great motive to industry and frugality, and the great cause of the accumulation of capital.

Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.