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Smith, Adam quotes - related books on Amazon -> Smith, Adam 1723-1790 Scottish Economist


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. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers, but extremely fit for a nation that is governed by shopkeepers.
Smith, Adam
Empire

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.
Smith, Adam
Business

Adventure upon all the tickets in the lottery, and you lose for certain; and the greater the number of your tickets the nearer your approach to this certainty.
Smith, Adam
Chance

What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?
Smith, Adam
Happiness

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.
Smith, Adam
Hatred

Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man.
Smith, Adam
Humankind

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.
Smith, Adam
Machinery

Mankind are animals that makes bargains, no other animal does this.
Smith, Adam
Humankind

Man is an animal that makes bargains; no other animal does this--one dog does not change a bone with another.
Smith, Adam
Humankind

The mind is so rarely disturbed, but that the company of friend will restore it to some degree of tranquility and sedateness.
Smith, Adam
Mind

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.
Smith, Adam
Trade Unions

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

With the great part of rich people, the chief employment of riches consists in the parade of riches.
Smith, Adam
Riches

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.
Smith, Adam
Science and Scientists

Man, an animal that makes bargains.
Smith, Adam
Agreement

Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse.
Smith, Adam
Analysis

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

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.
Smith, Adam
Worth