Adam Smith Quotes About Economics

Quotes about: Economics

• 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

• 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)

• In raising the price of commodities, the rise of wages operates in the same manner as simple interest does in the accumulation of debt. Our merchants and master manufacturers complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price, and thereby lessening the sale of their goods, both at home and abroad. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits; they are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.

  Adam Smith

  Philosophy, Simple, People

  "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations".

• I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.

  Adam Smith

  Government, Invisible Hand, Economic Order

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

• 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

• 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)

• 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

• 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.

  Adam Smith

  Real, Hype, Discipline

  Adam Smith (2010). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.138, Cosimo, Inc.

• 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

• All money is a matter of belief.

  Adam Smith

  Believe, Matter, Belief

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

  Adam Smith

  Fear, Vices, Excess

• As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.

  Adam Smith

  Country, Men, Economic Inequality

  Adam Smith (1814). “An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. With notes, and an additional vol., by D. Buchanan”, p.80

• Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good.

  Adam Smith

  Ambition, Common, Beautiful Mind

• Whenever the legislature attempts to regulate differences between masters and their workmen, its counsellors are always the masters. When the regulation, therefore, is in favor of the workmen, it is always just and equitable; but it is sometimes otherwise when in favor of the masters.

  Adam Smith

  Differences, Favors, Regulation

  Adam Smith (2016). “The Wealth of Nations: the Great Master”, p.167, VM eBooks

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

  Adam Smith

  Affluence, Economics, Inequality

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

• The discipline of colleges and universities is in general contrived, not for the benefit of the students, but for the interest, or more properly speaking, for the ease of the masters. Its object is, in all cases, to maintain the authority of the master, and whether he neglects or performs his duty, to oblige the students in all cases to behave toward him as if he performed it with the greatest diligence and ability.

  Adam Smith

  College, Discipline, Benefits

  'Wealth of Nations' (1776)

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

  Adam Smith

  Country, Citizens, Economics

  Adam Smith (2007). “The Wealth of Nations: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.271, Harriman House Limited

• Every man lives by exchanging.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Economics, Trade

  Adam Smith (2016). “The Wealth of Nations: the Great Master”, p.31, VM eBooks

• 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.

  Adam Smith

  People, Age, Libertarian

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.169

• 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.

  Adam Smith

  Progressive Taxation, Rich, Economics

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.355

• How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.

  Adam Smith

  Happiness, Selfish, Men

  Adam Smith (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Adam Smith (Illustrated)”, p.19, Delphi Classics

• 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.

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

  Adam Smith

  Purpose, Economics, Purchasing

  Adam Smith (1843). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations With a Life of the Author: Also a View of the Doctrine of Smith, Compared with that of the French Economists, with a Method of Facilitating the Study of His Works, from the French of M. Jariner”, p.177

• Every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of society as great as he can. He generally neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. He intends only his own gain, and he is, in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was not part of his intention.

  Adam Smith

  Hands, Invisible Hand, Liberty

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 2, bk. 4, ch. 2 (1776) See Adam Smith 1

• The man of system is apt to be very wise in his own conceit. In the great chess board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it

  Adam Smith

  Wise, Men, Might

  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.379

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