“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.”

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 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.

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.

Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool.

Foolish is the man who says that he fears death, not because it will cause pain when it arrives but because anticipation of it is painful.

Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

It is better to be silent, than to dispute with the Ignorant.

I was such a fool to fall for all the lies you told me.

A fool is known by his speech; and a wise man by silence.

One has to be insincere and promise something which you cannot fulfill. So you either have to be a fool who does not understand what you are promising, or deliberately be lying.

Only a fool lets somebody else tell him who his enemy is – never let your enemies choose your enemies for you.