Quotes by Adam Smith
“As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.”— Adam Smith
“Civil 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 Smith
“Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.”— Adam Smith
“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
“No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.”— Adam Smith
“The 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 Smith
“The propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.”— Adam Smith
“Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another.”— Adam Smith
“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.”— Adam Smith