Invisible Hand Quotes

• It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

  Adam Smith

  Business, Government, Liberty

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 2 (1776)

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

  Adam Smith

  Government, Economic Order, Investing

  1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk.4, ch.3.

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• By pursuing his own interest (the individual) frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.

  Adam Smith

  Done, Individual, Interest

  1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk.4, ch.3.

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• 

  Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.

  Tony Robbins

  Inspirational, Motivational, Powerful

  FaceBook post by Tony Robbins from May 12, 2017

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• 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.

  Adam Smith

  People, Competition, Together

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 10 (1776)

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• Every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of society as great as he can. He generally neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. He intends only his own gain, and he is, in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was not part of his intention.

  Adam Smith

  Hands, Liberty, Libertarian

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 2, bk. 4, ch. 2 (1776) See Adam Smith 1

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• The invisible hand of the market always moves faster and better than the heavy hand of government.

  Mitt Romney

  Business, Moving, Government

  "Commentary: Stimulate the economy, not government" by Mitt Romney, www.cnn.com. February 6, 2009.

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• He is led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention

  Adam Smith

  Ignorance, Hands, Economics

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 2, bk. 4, ch. 2 (1776) See Adam Smith 1

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• What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.

  Adam Smith

  Kingdoms, Economic, Wealth Of Nations

  1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk.4, ch.2.

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• If you are on the right path you will find that invisible hands are helping.

  Joseph Campbell

  Hands, Path, Helping

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• It is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense. They are themselves, always, and without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society.

  Adam Smith

  Kings, People, Watches

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 2, ch. 3 (1776)

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• The invisible hand in politics operates in the opposite direction to the invisible hand in the market.

  Milton Friedman

  Hands, Opposites, Invisible

  Milton Friedman (1972). “An economist's protest: columns in political economy”

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• That invisible hand of Adam Smith seems to offer an extended middle finger to an awful lot of people.

  George Carlin

  Hands, People, Awful

  George Carlin (2015). “3 x Carlin: An Orgy of George including Brain Droppings, Napalm and Silly Putty, and When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?”, p.217, Hachette UK

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• Many people in this world are merely playing a role, unaware that there is an Invisible Hand guiding them.

  Paulo Coelho

  Hands, People, Roles

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• We don't legislate emergent technologies into existence. We almost never do. They just emerge, dragged forth by Adam Smith's invisible hand. Then we have to see what people are actually going to do with them, and try to legislate to take account of that.

  William Gibson

  Technology, Hands, People

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. August 22, 2007.

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• The reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is often not there.

  Joseph Stiglitz

  Hands, Reason, Seems

  "Citizen’s Book Club: Would Adam Smith Vote Obama?" by Lex Paulson, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 5, 2012.

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• There is no economic imperative that will condemn us to deplete our vital resource base, but neither is there an invisible hand that will prevent us from doing so.

  Jeffrey Sachs

  Hands, Economic, Resources

  "Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet". Book by Jeffrey Sachs, 2011.

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• People who intend only to seek their own benefit are “led by an invisible hand to serve a public interest which was no part of” their intention. I say that there is a reverse invisible hand: People who intend to serve only the public interest are led by an invisible hand to serve private interests which was no part of their intention.

  Milton Friedman

  Hands, People, Intention

  "Why Government Is the Problem".

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• The key reason executives are paid so much now is that they appoint the members of the corporate board that determines their compensation and control many of the perks that board members count on. So it's not the invisible hand of the market that leads to those monumental executive incomes; it's the invisible handshake in the boardroom.

  Paul Krugman

  Keys, Hands, Boards

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• I believe in God as I believe in my friends, because I feel the breath of His affection, feel His invisible and intangible hand, drawing me, leading me, grasping me; because I possess an inner consciousness of a particular providence and of a universal mind that marks out for me the course of my own destiny.

  Miguel de Unamuno

  Believe, Destiny, Drawing

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• Adam Smith's uncritically enthusiastic modern disciples portray his invisible hand theory as saying that market forces reliably harness selfish individuals to serve the common good. That's often true, but as Darwin recognized clearly, many traits that serve the interests of individual animals make life more difficult for larger groups.

  Robert H. Frank

  Selfish, Animal, Hands

  Source: bobmorris.biz

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• The effect of capitalism is to steer human selfishness so that, through the invisible hand of competition, the energies of the capitalist produce the abundance from which the whole society benefits.

  Dinesh D'Souza

  Hands, Competition, Selfishness

  Dinesh D'Souza (2008). “What's So Great about Christianity”, Tyndale House Pub

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• As against the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith, there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane.

  Pierre Trudeau

  Caring, Hands, Society

  Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1995). “Memoirs”, McClelland & Stewart Limited

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• The border is a marketplace. The invisible hand of the powerful governs the crossings.

  Amitava Kumar

  Powerful, Hands, Borders

  Amitava Kumar (2000). “Passport Photos”, p.219, Univ of California Press

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• Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow Makes wing to th' rooky wood. Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, While night's black agents to their prey do rouse.

  William Shakespeare

  Eye, Night, Hands

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 3, sc. 2, l. 45

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