Adam Smith Quotes - Page 5

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• Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

  Adam Smith

  Purpose, May, Ends

  'Wealth of Nations' (1776) bk. 4, ch. 8

  27 Copy quote

• Upstart greatness is everywhere less respected than ancient greatness.

  Adam Smith

  Greatness, Ancient, Upstart

  Adam Smith, Robert L. Heilbroner, Laurence J. Malone (1987). “The Essential Adam Smith”, p.296, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• Sugar, rum and tobacco are commodities which are nowhere necessaries of life, which are become objects of almost universal consumption, and which are therefore extremely proper subjects of taxation.

  Adam Smith

  Taxation, Sugar, Commodity

  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.399

  11 Copy quote

• We are delighted to find a person who values us as we value ourselves, and distinguishes us from the rest of mankind, with an attention not unlike that with which we distinguish ourselves.

  Adam Smith

  Attention, Mankind, Persons

  Adam Smith (2012). “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”, p.95, Courier Corporation

  7 Copy quote

• Labor was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things.

  Adam Smith

  Labour Movement, Labor Day, Firsts

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

  8 Copy quote

• Whatever work he does, beyond what is sufficient to purchase his own maintenance, can be squeezed out of him by violence only, and not by any interest of his own.

  Adam Smith

  Doe, Maintenance, Violence

  Adam Smith, Laurence Dickey (1993). “Wealth of Nations (Abridged)”, p.91, Hackett Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• Nothing but the most exemplary morals can give dignity to a man of small fortune.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Giving, Moral

  Adam Smith (2007). “The Wealth of Nations: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.35, Harriman House Limited

  7 Copy quote

• The proprietor of stock is necessarily a citizen of the world, and is not necessarily attached to any particular country.

  Adam Smith

  Country, Citizens, World

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.358

  6 Copy quote

• Men desire to have some share in the management of public affairs chiefly on account of the importance which it gives them.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Giving, Desire

  Adam Smith, William Playfair (1811). “An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations”, p.102

  6 Copy quote

• 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)

  10 Copy quote

• The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.

  Adam Smith

  Business, Men, Animal

  Adam Smith (1801). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”

  13 Copy quote

• The cheapness of wine seems to be a cause, not of drunkenness, but of sobriety. ...People are seldom guilty of excess in what is their daily fare... On the contrary, in the countries which, either from excessive heat or cold, produce no grapes, and where wine consequently is dear and a rarity, drunkenness is a common vice.

  Adam Smith

  Country, Wine, People

  Adam Smith (2007). “The Wealth of Nations: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: With an introduction by Jonathan B. Wight, University of Richmond”, p.439, Harriman House Limited

  7 Copy quote

• In a militia, the character of the laborer, artificer, or tradesman, predominates over that of the soldier: in a standing army, that of the soldier predominates over every other character.

  Adam Smith

  Military, Character, Army

  Adam Smith (1801). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.322

  4 Copy quote

• The division of labour was limited by the extent of the market

  Adam Smith

  Division, Economics, Labour

  9 Copy quote

• The ancient Egyptians had a superstitious antipathy to the sea; a superstition nearly of the same kind prevails among the Indians; and the Chinese have never excelled in foreign commerce.

  Adam Smith

  Sea, Chinese, Superstitions

  Adam Smith (1869). “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Volume 1”, p.372

  5 Copy quote

• In general, if any branch of trade, or any division of labour, be advantageous to the public, the freer and more general the competition, it will always be the more so.

  Adam Smith

  Competition, Division, Branches

  Adam Smith (2016). “The Wealth of Nations: the Great Master”, p.360, VM eBooks

  4 Copy quote

• But though empires, like all the other works of men, have all hitherto proved mortal, yet every empire aims at immortality.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Empires, Immortality

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.349

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  20 Copy quote

• The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition is so powerful that it is alone, and without any assistance, capable not only of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting 100 impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations.

  Adam Smith

  Powerful, Law, Effort

  12 Copy quote

• Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog.

  Adam Smith

  Dog, Saws, Bones

  Adam Smith, Laurence Dickey (1993). “Wealth of Nations (Abridged)”, p.11, Hackett Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• Resentment seems to have been given us by nature for a defense, and for a defense only! It is the safeguard of justice and the security of innocence.

  Adam Smith

  Nature, Hate, Justice

  Adam Smith (1948). “Adam Smith's moral and political philosophy”

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• It would be too ridiculous to go about seriously to prove that wealth does not consist in money, or in gold and silver; but in what money purchases, and is valuable only for purchasing. Money no doubt, makes always a part of the national capital; but it has already been shown that it generally makes but a small part, and always the most unprofitable part of it.

  Adam Smith

  Doubt, Gold, Doe

  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

  19 Copy quote

• The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers.

  Adam Smith

  Opposites, Competition, Different

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.107

  15 Copy quote

• Wonder... and not any expectation of advantage from its discoveries, is the first principle which prompts mankind to the study of Philosophy, of that science which pretends to lay open the concealed connections that unite the various appearances of nature.

  Adam Smith

  Philosophy, Knowledge, Discovery

  'Essays on Philosophical Subjects' (1795) 'The History of Astronomy' sect. 3, para. 3

  5 Copy quote

• We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations [that is, unions or colluding organizations] of masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labor above their actual price.

  Adam Smith

  Organization, Ignorant, World

  8 Copy quote

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