Adam Smith Quotes - Page 3

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• 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

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

  Adam Smith

  Experiments, Focused

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• 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.

  99 Copy quote

• Fear is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of government, and ought in particular never to be employed against any order of men who have the smallest pretensions to independency.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Order, Cases

  Adam Smith (1778). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.390

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• A monopoly granted either to an individual or to a trading company has the same effect as a secret in trade or manufactures. The monopolists, by keeping the market constantly understocked, by never fully supplying the effectual demand, sell their commodities much above the natural price, and raise their emoluments, whether they consist in wages or profit, greatly above their natural rate.

  Adam Smith

  Competition, Secret, Demand

  Adam Smith, James R. Otteson (2004). “Adam Smith: Selected Philosophical Writings”, p.114, Imprint Academic

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• 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

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• The machines that are first invented to perform any particular movement are always the most complex, and succeeding artists generally discover that, with fewer wheels, with fewer principles of motion, than had originally been employed, the same effects may be more easily produced. The first systems, in the same manner, are always the most complex.

  Adam Smith

  Artist, Principles, Machines

  Adam Smith (2016). “The Essays on Philosophical Subjects: the Great Master”, p.460, VM eBooks

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• Great nations are never impoverished by private, though they sometimes are by public prodigality and misconduct.

  Adam Smith

  Political, Politics, Sometimes

  Adam Smith (2010). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.282, Cosimo, Inc.

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• 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.

  58 Copy quote

• 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".

  89 Copy quote

• The violence and injustice of the rulers of mankind is an ancient evil, for which, I am afraid, the nature of human affairs can scarce admit a remedy.

  Adam Smith

  Evil, Violence, Injustice

  Adam Smith (2008). “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: A Selected Edition”, OUP Oxford

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• Problems worthy of attacks, prove their worth by hitting back

  Adam Smith

  Hitting, Problem, Economics

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• No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.

  Adam Smith

  Should Have, People, Body

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

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• Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of the society which he has in view. But the study of his own advantage naturally, or rather necessarily, leads him to prefer that employment which is most advantageous to society... 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

  Views, Hands, Invisible Hand

  Adam Smith (2017). “The Wealth of Nations (illustrated)”, p.330, Clap Publishing, LLC.

  109 Copy quote

• All jobs are created in direct proportion to the amount of capital employed.

  Adam Smith

  Jobs, Investing, Proportion

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• 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. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Envy, Want

  Adam Smith (1809). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.95

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• An English university is a sanctuary in which exploded systems and obsolete prejudices find shelter and protection after they have been . hunted out of every corner of the world.

  Adam Smith

  Education, Prejudice, World

  Adam Smith (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Adam Smith (Illustrated)”, p.1761, Delphi Classics

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• We are but one of the multitude, in no respect better than any other in it.

  Adam Smith

  No Respect, Multitudes

  Adam Smith, Robert L. Heilbroner, Laurence J. Malone (1987). “The Essential Adam Smith”, p.107, W. W. Norton & Company

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• A true party-man hates and despises candour.

  Adam Smith

  Hate, Party, Men

  Adam Smith (1853). “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.219

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• The world neither ever saw, nor ever will see, a perfectly fair lottery.

  Adam Smith

  World, Saws, Fairs

  Adam Smith, William Playfair (1811). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.76

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• No complaint... is more common than that of a scarcity of money.

  Adam Smith

  Money, Reality, Scarcity

  Adam Smith (2010). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.334, Cosimo, Inc.

  39 Copy quote

• The man scarce lives who is not more credulous than he ought to be... The natural disposition is always to believe. It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough.

  Adam Smith

  Believe, Men, Wisdom And Experience

  Adam Smith (2012). “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”, p.336, Courier Corporation

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• 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

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• The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it... He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that...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, Hands

  "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" by Adam Smith, (Section II, Chap. II), 1759.

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• The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals would not only load himself with most unnecessary attention but assume an authority which could safely be trusted to no council and senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of man who have folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.

  Adam Smith

  Exercise, Men, Hands

  Adam Smith, Bruce Mazlish (2003). “The Wealth of Nations: Representative Selections”, p.167, Courier Corporation

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