Adam Smith

Defense is superior to opulence.

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.

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.

This is one of those cases in which the imagination is baffled by the facts.

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

With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches.

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.

The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.

Great ambition, the desire of real superiority, of leading and directing, seems to be altogether peculiar to man, and speech is the great instrument of ambition.

Poor David Hume is dying fast, but with more real cheerfulness and good humor and with more real resignation to the necessary course of things, than any whining Christian ever dyed with pretended resignation to the will of God.

Labor was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things.

On the road from the City of Skepticism, I had to pass through the Valley of Ambiguity.

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

Labour was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased.

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.

I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.

Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another.

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

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

Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse.