Adam Smith Quotes

Quotes about:

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

  Adam Smith

  Happiness, Equality, Society

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.33

  223 Copy quote

• 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.

  Adam Smith

  Business, Invisible Hand, Government

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 2 (1776)

  189 Copy quote

• A nation is not made wealthy by the childish accumulation of shiny metals, but it enriched by the economic prosperity of it's people.

  Adam Smith

  People, Prosperity, Economics

  81 Copy quote

• 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.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Watches, Firsts

  Adam Smith (2015). “The Money Game”, p.24, Open Road Media

  177 Copy quote

• Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

  Adam Smith

  Patriotic, Government, Libertarian

  Adam Smith (2012). “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”, p.89, Courier Corporation

  111 Copy quote

• A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation.Most government is by the rich for the rich. Government comprises a large part of the organized injustice in any society, ancient or modern.Civil government, insofar as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, and for the defence of those who have property against those who have none.

  Adam Smith

  Reality, Government, Criminals

  161 Copy quote

• 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 who affected to trade for the public good.

  Adam Smith

  Invisible Hand, Done, Individual

  1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk.4, ch.3.

  143 Copy quote

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

  Adam Smith

  Funny, Dog, Animal

  81 Copy quote

• The rate of profit... is naturally low in rich and high in poor countries, and it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin.

  Adam Smith

  Country, Ruins, Rich

  1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk.1, ch.11, conclusion.

  4 Copy quote

• There is no art which government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.

  Adam Smith

  Art, Government, People

  'Wealth of Nations' (1776)

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Adam Smith

  Powerful, Mean, Causes

  Adam Smith (2012). “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”, p.58, Courier Corporation

  33 Copy quote

• Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good.

  Adam Smith

  Ambition, Common, Beautiful Mind

  38 Copy quote

• But avarice and ambition in the rich, in the poor the hatred of labour and the love of present ease and enjoyment, are the passions which prompt to invade property, passions much more steady in their operation, and much more universal in their influence. Wherever there is great 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.

  Adam Smith

  Affluence, Making Money, Rich

  Adam Smith, J.R. McCulloch (1828). “Aninquiry in to the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: With a Life of the Author, an Introductory Discourse, Notes, and Supplemental Dissertations by J.R. McCulloch”, p.190

  143 Copy quote

• Have lots of experiments, but make sure they're strategically focused.

  Adam Smith

  Experiments, Focused

  0 Copy quote

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

  Adam Smith

  Complaining, Economics, All Time

  Adam Smith (2007). “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”, p.350, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

  15 Copy quote

• 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.

  Adam Smith

  Business, Real, Men

  1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk.1, ch.5.

  113 Copy quote

• Nothing is more graceful than habitual cheerfulness.

  Adam Smith

  Happiness, Cheerfulness, Habitual

  Adam Smith (2012). “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”, p.39, Courier Corporation

  56 Copy quote

• 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.

  Adam Smith

  Minorities, Rewards, Fool

  9 Copy quote

• The interest of [businessmen] is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public ... The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order ... ought never to be adopted, till after having been long and carefully examined ... with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men ... who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Order, Law

  "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith, Chapter XI, Part III, Conclusion of the Chapter, (p. 292), 1776.

  91 Copy quote

• 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.

  Adam Smith

  Invisible Hand, People, Competition

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 10 (1776)

  82 Copy quote

• The subjects of every state ought to contribute toward 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 ....As Henry Home (Lord Kames) has written, a goal of taxation should be to 'remedy inequality of riches as much as possible, by relieving the poor and burdening the rich.'

  Adam Smith

  Home, Government, Goal

  6 Copy quote

• 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.

  Adam Smith

  Money, Men, Rich Or Poor

  Adam Smith (2010). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.36, Cosimo, Inc.

  55 Copy quote

• Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality.

  Adam Smith

  Affluence, Economics, Inequality

  Adam Smith (2016). “The Wealth of Nations”, Xist Publishing

  11 Copy quote

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

  Adam Smith

  Science, Flames, Enthusiasm

  The Wealth of Nations Bk V, Ch. 1

  34 Copy quote

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

  Adam Smith

  Life, Motivational, Positive

  "The Theory of Moral Sentiments".

  93 Copy quote

Page 1 of 9

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin