Wealth Of Nations Quotes

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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.

    An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 10 (1776)
  • It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.

    Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.355
  • Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another.

    Funny   Dog   Animal  
  • We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations [that is, unions or colluding organizations] of masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labor above their actual price.

  • Commerce is the equalizer of the wealth of nations.

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

    An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 2, bk. 4, ch. 2 (1776) See Adam Smith 1
  • How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.

    Happiness   Selfish   Men  
    Adam Smith (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Adam Smith (Illustrated)”, p.19, Delphi Classics
  • 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

    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
  • The key insight of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is misleadingly simple: if an exchange between two parties is voluntary, it will not take place unless both believe they will benefit from it. Most economic fallacies derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.

    Party   Believe   Simple  
    Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.31, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  • 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.

    An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 2, bk. 4, ch. 2 (1776) See Adam Smith 1
  • There is not a line in 'The Wealth of Nations' that is not still applicable to this day.

    Lines   Wealth   Stills  
  • What is the most effective, practical way of raising the wealth of nations? What causes wealth? I have come to think that the dream of democratic socialism is inferior to the dream of democratic capitalism, and that the latter's superiority in actual practice is undeniable.

    Michael Novak (1991). “The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism”, p.26, Rowman & Littlefield
  • Market forces have no intrinsically moral direction, which is why, before he wrote The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Ethics should precede economics. But it doesn't have to. . . . We know this because we've seen the results of capitalism without conscience: the pollution of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat; the endangerment of workers; and the sale of dangerous products - from cars to toys to drugs. All in pursuit of ever-greater profits.

    Air   Water   Car  
  • China is a much richer country than any part of Europe.

    Country   Europe   China  
    Adam Smith (1819). “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.262
  • The Wealth of Nations may not be an original book, but it is unquestionably a masterpiece.

    Book   May   Wealth  
    Robert L. Heilbroner (1955). “The Great Economists: Their Lives and Their Conceptions of the World”
  • If the machinery for distribution in the present economic system of the world is incapable of properly distributing the productive wealth of nations, then that system is false and must be altered.

    World   Wealth   Economic  
    "The Mind and Face of Nazi Germany" by Nagendranath Gangulee, (p. 165), 1942.
  • Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.

    Party   Pie   Liberty  
    Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.31, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  • A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him. They must even upon most occasions be somewhat more; otherwise it would be impossible for him to bring up a family, and the race of such workmen could not last beyond the first generation.

    Men   Race   Would Be  
    Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.28
  • The difference between the most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street porter, for example, seems to arise not so much from nature, as from habit, custom, and education.

    Adam Smith (1843). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations With a Life of the Author: Also a View of the Doctrine of Smith, Compared with that of the French Economists, with a Method of Facilitating the Study of His Works, from the French of M. Jariner”, p.7
  • All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.

    Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.169
  • The world values the seer above all men, and has always done so. Nay, it values all men in proportion as they partake of the character of seers. The Elgin Marbles and a decision of John Marshall are valued for the same reason. What we feel in them is a painstaking submission to facts beyond the author's control, and to ideas imposed on him by his vision. So with Beethoven's Symphonies, with Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations - with any conceivable output of the human mind of which you approve. You love them because you say, These things were not made, they were seen.

    Character   Men   Ideas  
  • 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.

    An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 2 (1776)
  • The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies of life which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations.

    Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.1
  • Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

    Purpose   May   Ends  
    'Wealth of Nations' (1776) bk. 4, ch. 8
  • No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.

    Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.33
  • The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals would not only load himself with most unnecessary attention but assume an authority which could safely be trusted to no council and senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of man who have folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.

    Exercise   Men   Hands  
    Adam Smith, Bruce Mazlish (2003). “The Wealth of Nations: Representative Selections”, p.167, Courier Corporation
  • What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.

    1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk.4, ch.2.
  • The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it... He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that...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.

    Wise   Men   Hands  
    "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" by Adam Smith, (Section II, Chap. II), 1759.
  • It appears, accordingly, from the experience of all ages and nations, I believe, that the work done by freemen comes cheaper in the end than that performed by slaves.

    Believe   Age   Done  
    Adam Smith, Laurence Dickey (1993). “Wealth of Nations (Abridged)”, p.44, Hackett Publishing
  • Whenever the legislature attempts to regulate differences between masters and their workmen, its counsellors are always the masters. When the regulation, therefore, is in favor of the workmen, it is always just and equitable; but it is sometimes otherwise when in favor of the masters.

    Adam Smith (2016). “The Wealth of Nations: the Great Master”, p.167, VM eBooks
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