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Adam Smith Quotes

Adam Smith quotes

Scottish Economist June 5, 1723 – July 17, 1790

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Quotes

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... 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
In regards to the price of commodities, the rise of wages operates as simple interest does, the rise of profit operates like compound interest. Our merchants and masters complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price and lessening the sale of goods. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people. Adam Smith
Adam Smith quote: "Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good; Father of Modern..."
Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good; Father of Modern Economics, Adam Smith Adam Smith
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
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 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
Adam Smith quote: "Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your..."
Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself. Adam Smith
Adam Smith quote: "I have never known much good done by those who affected to..."
I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. Adam Smith
Adam Smith quote: "of their passions in the same object at that particular time."
of their passions in the same object at that particular time. Adam Smith
The value of any commodity, therefore, to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the quantity of labour which it enables him to purchase or command. Labour, therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities. 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
Are you in earnest resolved never to barter your liberty for the lordly servitude of a court, but to live free, fearless, and independent? There seems to be one way to continue in that virtuous resolution; and perhaps but one. Never enter the place from whence so few have been able to return; never come within the circle of ambition; nor ever bring yourself into comparison with those masters of the earth who have already engrossed the attention of half mankind before you. Adam Smith
The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities. Adam Smith
Adam Smith quote: "Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does..."
Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another. Adam Smith
Adam Smith quote: "The learned ignore the evidence of their senses to preserve..."
The learned ignore the evidence of their senses to preserve the coherence of the ideas of their imagination. Adam Smith

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