Top 397 quotes by Adam Smith

Advertisements

The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Avarice over-rates the difference between poverty and riches: ambition, that between a private and a public station: vain-glory, that between obscurity and extensive reputation. The person under the influence of any of those extravagant passions, is not only miserable in his actual situation, but is often disposed to disturb the peace of society, in order to arrive at that which he so foolishly admires. The slightest observation, however, might satisfy him, that, in all the ordinary situations of human life, a well-disposed mind may be equally calm, equally cheerful, and equally contented. Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others: but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice; or to corrupt the future tranquillity of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice.
Adam Smith

“The Theory of Moral Sentiments”. Book by Adam Smith, 1759.

Ethics , Happiness

314

Adam Smith quote No society can surely be fl...

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.
Adam Smith

Happiness , Society , Equality

215

Adam Smith quote It is not from the benevole...

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

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

Business , Government , Invisible Hand

182

Adam Smith quote The first thing you have to...

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

Adam Smith (2015). “The Money Game”, p.24, Open Road Media

Firsts , Men , Watches

175

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

Government , Criminals , Reality

157

Adam Smith quote By pursuing his own interes...

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

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

Invisible Hand , Done , Individual

141

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

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

Rich , Making Money , Affluence

141

Adam Smith quote The real price of everythin...

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

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

Business , Men , Real

111

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 self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages
Adam Smith

“An Inquiry into the Nature & Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol 1”. Book by Adam Smith, 1776.

108

Adam Smith quote Mercy to the guilty is crue...

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.
Adam Smith

Adam Smith (2012). “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”, p.89, Courier Corporation

Government , Libertarian , Patriotic

108

Adam Smith quote Wherever there is great pro...

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

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

Men , Envy , Affluence

102

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

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

Hands , Invisible Hand , Views

101

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

"The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith, Chapter XI, Part III, Conclusion of the Chapter, (p. 292), 1776.

Men , Order , Law