Quotes by Smith, Adam

"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 on empire   

"Man, an animal that makes bargains."

Smith, Adam on agreement   

"Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse."

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

Smith, Adam on 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 on hatred   

"Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man."

Smith, Adam on humankind   

"Mankind are animals that makes bargains, no other animal does this."

Smith, Adam on humankind   

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

Smith, Adam on 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 on machinery   

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

Smith, Adam on mind   

"With the great part of rich people, the chief employment of riches consists in the parade of riches."

Smith, Adam on riches   

"Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition."

Smith, Adam on science   

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"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 on self-interest   

"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 on 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 on chance   

"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 on trade unions   

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

Smith, Adam on 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 on worth