The uniform, constant, and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition . . . is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration.

Adam Smith

Categorized in : Men Powerful Errors

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

equality society happiness

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.

men watches firsts

A nation is not made wealthy by the childish accumulation of shiny metals, but it enriched by the economic prosperity of it's people.

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.

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.

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.

invisible-hand individual done

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent. by Adam Smith

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

libertarian patriotic government

The great secret of education is to direct vanity to proper objec... by Adam Smith

The great secret of education is to direct vanity to proper objects.

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.

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.

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.

business real men

Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another.

dog animal funny

Nothing is more graceful than habitual cheerfulness. by Adam Smith

Nothing is more graceful than habitual cheerfulness.

habitual cheerfulness happiness

Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good. by Adam Smith

Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good.

beautiful-mind ambition common

The learned ignore the evidence of their senses to preserve the coherence of the ideas of their imagination.

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.

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.

law men order

Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power... by Adam Smith

Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself.

all-time economics complaining

The game women play is men. by Adam Smith

The game women play is men.

games play men

All money is a matter of belief. by Adam Smith

All money is a matter of belief.

belief matter believe