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

  152 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)

  219 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

  108 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

  261 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

  181 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

  209 Copy quote

• Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good.

  Adam Smith

  Ambition, Common, Beautiful Mind

  61 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)

  28 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

  13 Copy quote

• All money is a matter of belief.

  Adam Smith

  Believe, Matter, Belief

  34 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.

  156 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

  68 Copy quote

• Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.

  Adam Smith

  Purpose, Ends, Sole

  1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk.4, ch.8.

  64 Copy quote

• It is unjust that the whole of society should contribute towards an expence of which the benefit is confined to a part of the society.

  Adam Smith

  Benefits, Unjust, Should

  Adam Smith (1801). “An Inqury Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.336

  14 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

  95 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

  46 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

  26 Copy quote

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

  Adam Smith

  Fear, Vices, Excess

  36 Copy quote

• 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 those who have none at all.

  Adam Smith

  Reality, Government, Libertarian

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.299

  37 Copy quote

• The learned ignore the evidence of their senses to preserve the coherence of the ideas of their imagination.

  Adam Smith

  Ideas, Imagination, Coherence

  21 Copy quote

• I have no faith in political arithmetic.

  Adam Smith

  Faith, Math, Political

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

  5 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.

  25 Copy quote

• 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.

  Adam Smith

  Money, Labour Movement, Labor Day

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.13

  43 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.

  62 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.

  123 Copy quote

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