The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer. Adam Smith More Quotes by Adam Smith More Quotes From 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 equality society happiness A nation is not made wealthy by the childish accumulation of shiny metals, but it enriched by the economic prosperity of it's people. Adam Smith economics prosperity people 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 invisible-hand government business A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation.Most government is by the rich for the rich. Government comprises a large part of the organized injustice in any society, ancient or modern.Civil government, insofar as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, and for the defence of those who have property against those who have none. Adam Smith criminals government reality 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 invisible-hand individual done Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent. Adam Smith libertarian patriotic government The great secret of education is to direct vanity to proper objects. Adam Smith vanity objects secret The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments. Adam Smith causes powerful mean But avarice and ambition in the rich, in the poor the hatred of labour and the love of present ease and enjoyment, are the passions which prompt to invade property, passions much more steady in their operation, and much more universal in their influence. Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. Adam Smith affluence rich making-money 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 business real men Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another. Adam Smith dog animal funny Nothing is more graceful than habitual cheerfulness. Adam Smith habitual cheerfulness happiness Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good. Adam Smith beautiful-mind ambition common The learned ignore the evidence of their senses to preserve the coherence of the ideas of their imagination. Adam Smith coherence imagination ideas Labour was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased. Adam Smith labor-day labour-movement money The interest of [businessmen] is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public ... The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order ... ought never to be adopted, till after having been long and carefully examined ... with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men ... who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public. Adam Smith law men order Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself. Adam Smith all-time economics complaining The game women play is men. Adam Smith games play men All money is a matter of belief. Adam Smith belief matter believe Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of the society which he has in view. But the study of his own advantage naturally, or rather necessarily, leads him to prefer that employment which is most advantageous to society... 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 invisible-hand views hands
