Adam Smith Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  133 Copy quote

• 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

  249 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)

  200 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

  93 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

  195 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

  173 Copy quote

• Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good.

  Adam Smith

  Ambition, Common, Beautiful Mind

  49 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.

  148 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

  91 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

  42 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)

  18 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

  64 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.

  119 Copy quote

• All money is a matter of belief.

  Adam Smith

  Believe, Matter, Belief

  28 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

  17 Copy quote

• As soon as government management begins it upsets the natural equilibrium of industrial relations, and each interference only requires further bureaucratic control until the end is the tyranny of the totalitarian state.

  Adam Smith

  Government, Upset, Management

  6 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

  52 Copy quote

• Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse.

  Adam Smith

  Happiness, Happy, Pulse

  73 Copy quote

• Defense is superior to opulence.

  Adam Smith

  Opulence, Defense, Economy

  25 Copy quote

• Beneficence is always free, it cannot be extorted by force.

  Adam Smith

  Force, Beneficence

  Adam Smith (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Adam Smith (Illustrated)”, p.96, Delphi Classics

  3 Copy quote

• I have no faith in political arithmetic.

  Adam Smith

  Faith, Math, Political

  "Wealth of Nations". Book by Adam Smith, March 9, 1776.

  4 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.

  96 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".

  100 Copy quote

• The game women play is men.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Play, Games

  Adam Smith (2015). “The Money Game”, p.83, Open Road Media

  8 Copy quote

• The great secret of education is to direct vanity to proper objects.

  Adam Smith

  Vanity, Secret, Objects

  Adam Smith (1817). “The Theory of Moral Sentiments: Or, An Essay Towards an Analysis of the Principles by which Men Naturally Judge Concerning the Conduct and Character, First of Their Neighbours, and Afterwards of Themselves : to which is Added, A Dissertation on the Origin of Languages”, p.421

  10 Copy quote

Page 1 of 9

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin