Adam Smith Quotes
The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labor, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labor. – Adam Smith
No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. – Adam Smith
The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations. – Adam Smith
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
It is not by augmenting the capital of the country, but by rendering a greater part of that capital active and productive than would otherwise be so, that the most judicious operations of banking can increase the industry of the country. – Adam Smith
All money is a matter of belief. – Adam Smith
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
The division of labor is limited by the extent of the market. – Adam Smith
Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things. – Adam Smith
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics. – Adam Smith
To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature. – Adam Smith
Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this – no dog exchanges bones with another. – Adam Smith
To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. – Adam Smith
The uniform, constant, and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition, the principle from which public and national, as well as private opulence is originally derived, is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite both of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration. – Adam Smith
Labor was the first price, the original purchase – money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labor, that all wealth of the world was originally purchasing. – Adam Smith
What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. – Adam Smith
The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts, and persist in doing so, generation after generation, through all changes of opinion and detail, is the one that must rule all observation. – Adam Smith
It seldom happens that a man, in any line of business, has occasion to make any considerable quantity of any one commodity. – Adam Smith
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
The difference between the most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street porter, for example, seems to arise not so much from nature as from habit, custom, and education. – Adam Smith
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
The price of monopoly is upon every occasion the highest which can be got. The natural price, or the price of free competition, on the contrary, is the lowest which can be taken, not upon every occasion, indeed, but for any considerable time altogether. – Adam Smith
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
It is not the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner from, but 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
Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience. – Adam Smith
To feel much for others and little in ourselves, to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature. – Adam Smith
Great nations are never impoverished by private, though they sometimes are by public prodigality and misconduct. – Adam Smith
What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience? – Adam Smith
Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition. – Adam Smith
So long as all the different parts of a country are connected with one another, the culture of its own inhabitants is certainly most advantageous for that country. – Adam Smith
The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour. – Adam Smith
What is the species of domestic industry which his capital can employ, and of which the produce is likely to be of the greatest value, every individual, it is evident, can, in his local situation, judge much better than any statesman or lawgiver can do for him. – Adam Smith
It is not the actual greatness of national wealth, but its continual increase, which occasions a rise in the wages of labor. – Adam Smith
The discipline of corporations is always more regular and orderly than that of private employers. – Adam Smith
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. – Adam Smith
With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eye is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves. – Adam Smith
The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security, is so powerful a principle that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations. – Adam Smith
All money is a matter of belief. – Adam Smith
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
The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain, and not arbitrary. – Adam Smith
The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamored with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. – Adam Smith
The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts, and persist in doing so, generation after generation, through all changes of opinion and detail, is the one that must rule all observation. – Adam Smith
The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations… has no occasion to exert his understanding, or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. – Adam Smith
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
By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry he intends only his own security, and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, 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 no part of his intention. – Adam Smith
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 always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. – Adam Smith
The countries which, according to the representation of men of the best judgment and most liberal ideas upon the subject, are naturally fitted for their respective products, bear the closest analogy to those which according to this account of the origin of justice, are naturally fitted for a just distribution of reward and punishment. – Adam Smith
The labor and time of the poor is in civilised countries sacrificed to the maintaining of the rich in ease and luxury. The Landlord is maintained in idleness and luxury by the labor of his tenants. The moneyed man is supported by his extractions from the industrious merchant and the needy who are obliged to support him in ease by a return for the use of his money. – Adam Smith
The first duty of the sovereign, therefore, that of protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies, can be performed only by means of a military force. But the expense both of preparing this military force in time of peace, and of employing it in time of war, is very different in the different states of society, in the different periods of improvement. – Adam Smith
The interest of the dealers… in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, 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. – Adam Smith