Adam Smith Quotes - Page 7

Quotes about:

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.

Adam Smith

Complaining, Decay, Prosperity

Adam Smith (2007). “The Wealth of Nations: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.60, Harriman House Limited

7 Copy quote
The tolls for the maintenance of a high road, cannot with any safety be made the property of private persons.

Adam Smith

Safety, Maintenance, Tolls

Adam Smith (2010). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.477, Cosimo, Inc.

4 Copy quote
By nature a philosopher is not in genius and disposition half so different from a street porter, as a mastiff is from a greyhound

Adam Smith

Different, Genius, Half

Adam Smith (1784). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.24

8 Copy quote
Mercantile jealousy is excited, and both inflames, and is itself inflamed, by the violence of national animosity.

Adam Smith

Violence, Excited, Animosity

Adam Smith, J.R. McCulloch (1828). “Aninquiry in to the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: With a Life of the Author, an Introductory Discourse, Notes, and Supplemental Dissertations by J.R. McCulloch”, p.349

4 Copy quote
That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is most often unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages.

Adam Smith

Respect, Greatness, Age

Adam Smith (1869). “Essays On, I. Moral Sentiments: II. Astronomical Inquiries; III. Formation of Languages; IV. History of Ancient Physics; V. Ancient Logic and Metaphysicis; VI. The Imitative Arts; VII. Music, Dancing, Poetry; VIII. The External Senses; IX. English and Italian Verses”, p.57

8 Copy quote
The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities.

Adam Smith

Government, Progressive Taxation, Support

Adam Smith (1778). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.425

7 Copy quote
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.

Adam Smith

Men, Order, Demand

Adam Smith (2010). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.59, Cosimo, Inc.

5 Copy quote
Now many such things may be done without intitling the people to rise in arms. A gross, flagrant, and palpable abuse no doubt will do it, as if they should be required to pay a tax equal to half or third of their substance.

Adam Smith

Philosophy, People, Political

9 Copy quote
The directors of such companies, however, being the managers rather of other people's money than of their own, it cannot well be expected, that they should watch over it with the same anxious vigilance with which the partners in a private copartnery frequently watch over their own.... Negligence and profusion, therefore, must always prevail, more or less, in the management of the affairs of such a company.

Adam Smith

People, Watches, Directors

5 Copy quote
To expect, indeed, that the freedom of trade should ever be entirely restored in Great Britain, is as absurd as to expect that an Oceana or Utopia should never be established in it.

Adam Smith

Utopia, Absurd, Should

Adam Smith, David Buchanan (1817). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: With Notes, and an Additional Volume”, p.213

4 Copy quote
The sneaking arts of underling tradesmen are thus erected into political maxims for the conduct of a great empire; for it is the most underling tradesmen only who make it a rule to employ chiefly their own customers. A great trader purchases his good always where they are cheapest and best, without regard to any little interest of this kind.

Adam Smith

Art, Political, Empires

Adam Smith, Dugald Stewart (1843). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.174

7 Copy quote
When the toll upon carriages of luxury, upon coaches, post-chaises, etc. is made somewhat higher in proportion to their weight, than upon carriages of necessary use, such as carts, wagons, etc. the indolence and vanity of the rich is made to contribute in a very easy manner to the relief of the poor, by rendering cheaper the transportation of heavy goods to all the different parts of the country.

Adam Smith

Country, Luxury, Necessary Use

Adam Smith, John Ramsay McCulloch (1870). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”

5 Copy quote
Are you in earnest resolved never to barter your liberty for the lordly servitude of a court, but to live free, fearless, and independent? There seems to be one way to continue in that virtuous resolution; and perhaps but one. Never enter the place from whence so few have been able to return; never come within the circle of ambition; nor ever bring yourself into comparison with those masters of the earth who have already engrossed the attention of half mankind before you.

Adam Smith

Ambition, Independent, Circles

Adam Smith, Robert L. Heilbroner, Laurence J. Malone (1987). “The Essential Adam Smith”, p.85, W. W. Norton & Company

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

Adam Smith

Ignorance, Imagination, Facts

8 Copy quote
The man of system is apt to be very wise in his own conceit. In the great chess board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it

Adam Smith

Wise, Men, Might

Adam Smith (1817). “The Theory of Moral Sentiments: Or, An Essay Towards an Analysis of the Principles by which Men Naturally Judge Concerning the Conduct and Character, First of Their Neighbours, and Afterwards of Themselves : to which is Added, A Dissertation on the Origin of Languages”, p.379

6 Copy quote
The man who barely abstains from violating either the person, or the estate, or the reputation of his neighbours, has surely very little positive merit. He fulfils, however, all the rules of what is peculiarly called justice, and does every thing which his equals can with propriety force him to do, or which they can punish him for not doing. We may often fulfil all the rules of justice by sitting still and doing nothing.

Adam Smith

Men, Sitting Still, Justice

Adam Smith (2016). “The Essays on Philosophical Subjects: the Great Master”, p.92, VM eBooks

6 Copy quote
With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eye is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves.

Adam Smith

Eye, People, Opulence

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 11 (1776)

17 Copy quote
Secrets in manufactures are capable of being longer kept than secrets in trade.

Adam Smith

Secret, Trade, Capable

Adam Smith, James R. Otteson (2004). “Adam Smith: Selected Philosophical Writings”, p.114, Imprint Academic

6 Copy quote
The great affair, we always find, is to get money.

Adam Smith

Get Money, Affair

Adam Smith (2016). “The Wealth of Nations: the Great Master”, p.457, VM eBooks

4 Copy quote
When the profits of trade happen to be greater than ordinary, over-trading becomes a general error both among great and small dealers.

Adam Smith

Errors, Ordinary, Profit

Adam Smith (2010). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.335, Cosimo, Inc.

4 Copy quote
But what all the violence of the feudal institutions could never have effected, the silent and insensible operation of foreign commerce and manufactures gradually brought about.

Adam Smith

Violence, Silent, Institutions

Adam Smith (2007). “The Wealth of Nations: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.267, Harriman House Limited

5 Copy quote
But poverty, though it does not prevent the generation, is extremely unfavourable to the rearing of children. The tender plant is produced, but in so cold a soil, and so severe a climate, soon withers and dies.

Adam Smith

Children, Science, Climate

Adam Smith (2010). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.83, Cosimo, Inc.

4 Copy quote
Though the principles of the banking trade may appear somewhat abstruse, the practice is capable of being reduced to strict rules. To depart upon any occasion from those rules, is consequence of some flattering speculation of extraordinary gain, is almost always extremely dangerous, and frequently fatal to the banking company which attempts it.

Adam Smith

Practice, Principles, Banking

Adam Smith, Dugald Stewart (1843). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.104

4 Copy quote
All registers which, it is acknowledged, ought to be kept secret, ought certainly never to exist.

Adam Smith

Secret, Kept Secrets, Register

Adam Smith (2007). “The Wealth of Nations: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: With an introduction by Jonathan B. Wight, University of Richmond”, p.755, Harriman House Limited

4 Copy quote
The liberal reward of labor, therefore, as it is the necessary effect, so it is the natural symptom of increasing national wealth. The scanty maintenance of the laboring poor, on the other hand, is the natural symptom that things are at a stand, and their starving condition that they going backwards fast.

Adam Smith

Hands, Rewards, Maintenance

Adam Smith, Bruce Mazlish (2003). “The Wealth of Nations: Representative Selections”, p.74, Courier Corporation

7 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Karl Marx

John Maynard Keynes

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Baron de Montesquieu

Adam Smith

Follow

Born: June 5, 1723
Died: July 17, 1790
Occupation: Philosopher
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics