What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.
ADAM SMITHWhat is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.
ADAM SMITHThe 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 SMITHMen desire to have some share in the management of public affairs chiefly on account of the importance which it gives them.
ADAM SMITHIt 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.
ADAM SMITHHappiness never lays its finger on its pulse.
ADAM SMITHA 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.
ADAM SMITHGreat nations are never impoverished by private, though they sometimes are by public prodigality and misconduct.
ADAM SMITHAsk any rich man of common prudence to which of the two sorts of people he has lent the greater part of his stock, to those who, he thinks, will employ it profitably, or to those who will spend it idly, and he will laugh at you for proposing the question.
ADAM SMITHAll money is a matter of belief.
ADAM SMITHIt is the natural effect of improvement, however, to diminish gradually the real price of almost all manufactures.
ADAM SMITHThe problem with fiat money is that it rewards the minority that can handle money, but fools the generation that has worked and saved money.
ADAM SMITHCivil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.
ADAM SMITHThe greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.
ADAM SMITHThe 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 SMITHThe proprietor of stock is necessarily a citizen of the world, and is not necessarily attached to any particular country.
ADAM SMITHNo complaint is more common than that of a scarcity of money.
ADAM SMITH