“In ease of body, peace of mind, all the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level and the beggar who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for.”

It is unjust that the whole of society should contribute towards an expence of which the benefit is confined to a part of the society.

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.

The problem with fiat money is that it rewards the minority that can handle money, but fools the generation that has worked and saved money.

The division of labour was limited by the extent of the market.

I have no great faith in political arithmetic, and I mean not to warrant the exactness of either of these computations.

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.

Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good.

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

When profit diminishes, merchants are very apt to complain that trade decays; though the diminution of profit is the natural effect of its prosperity, or of a greater stock being employed in it than before.

That the chance of gain is naturally over-valued, we may learn from the universal success of lotteries.

A very poor man may be said in some sense to have a demand for a coach and six; he might like to have it; but his demand is not an effectual demand, as the commodity can never be brought to market in order to satisfy it.

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

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.

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 violence and injustice of the rulers of mankind is an ancient evil, for which, I am afraid, the nature of human affairs can scarce admit a remedy.

The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer.

Sturdy beggars can bear stout denials.

Better a living beggar than a buried emperor.

The Alliance for Progress is an alliance between one millionaire and many beggars.

For one who knows me, I am one with him; for one who wants to know me, I am very near to him; and for one who does not know me, I am a beggar before him.

Make of the Silence your to-do tasks, of the compassion your wealth and of the meditation your beggar’s bowl.

All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar’s teeth.

Love is bitter and all there is, and that the rest is for the emotional beggars of the earth.

Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.