“There is no art which government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.”

Man, an animal that makes bargains.

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

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.

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.

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.

Passion is universal humanity. Without it religion, history, romance and art would be useless.

If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, please a few. To please many is bad.

I wasn’t available to do the right things for my son. If not for the arts, my child would’ve been lost.

Art is the right hand of Nature. The latter has only given us being, the former has made us men.

Suddenly I’ve got an overwhelming desire to surround myself with the aura of classical and Romantic art.

Art is difficult, transient is her reward.

Movies are a collective art. Art by proxy.

Art imitates life and, sometimes, life imitates art. It’s a weird combination of elements.