“Were the Americans, either by combination or by any other sort of violence, to stop the importation of European manufactures, and, by thus giving a monopoly to such of their own countrymen as could manufacture the like goods, divert any considerable part of their capital into this employment, they would retard instead of accelerating the further increase in the value of their annual produce, and would obstruct instead of promoting the progress of their country towards real wealth and greatness.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
Category: Economics
“The uniform, constant, and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition, the principle from which public and national, as well as private opulence is originally derived, is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite both of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“Bankruptcy is perhaps the greatest and most humiliating calamity which can befall an innocent man. The greater part of men, therefore, are sufficiently careful to avoid it. Some, indeed, do not avoid it; as some do not avoid the gallows.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“The principle which prompts to save, is the desire of bettering our condition, a desire which, though generally calm and dispassionate, comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us till we go into the grave. In the whole interval which separates those two moments, there is scarce perhaps a single instant in which any man is so perfectly and completely satisfied with his situation, as to be without any wish of alteration or improvement of any kind.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“The sole use of money is to circulate consumable goods.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“In general, if any branch of trade, or any division of labour, be advantageous to the public, the freer and more general the competition, it will always be the more so.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“Those exertions of the natural liberty of a few individuals, which might endanger the security of the whole society, are, and ought to be, restrained by the laws of all governments; of the most free, as well as of the most despotical.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“It is not by augmenting the capital of the country, but by rendering a greater part of that capital active and productive than would otherwise be so, that the most judicious operations of banking can increase the industry of the country.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“A division of things is by the law of nations. Nevertheless, by the common consent it may, upon just grounds, be somewhere enacted that almost all possessions should be in common.” – William Ames, “Conscience” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)
“To widen the market and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers. To widen the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the public; but to narrow the competition must always be against it, and can serve only to enable the dealers, by raising their profits above what they naturally would be, to levy, for their own benefit, an absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow-citizens. The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same as that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“Of all the productions of land, milk is perhaps the most perishable. In the warm season, when it is most abundant, it will scarce keep four-and-twenty hours. The farmer, by making it into fresh butter, stores a small part of it for a week: by making it into salt butter, for a year: and by making it into cheese, he stores a much greater part of it for several years.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“Any man that makes a bargain, and does find afterwards ’tis for the worse, yet is bound to stand to it.” – Henry Ireton, “Putney Debates” (in A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism & Liberty)
“A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 4.3
“The poor advanc’d makes friends of enemies. And hitherto doth love on fortune tend: for who not needs shall never lack a friend.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 3.2
“Bless’d are those whose blood and judgment are so well commingled that they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger to sound what stop she please.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 3.2
“There’s no political posture that overrides the need to eat.” – Alicia Kennedy, “On Tradwives”
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be: for loan oft loses both itself and friend; and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 1.3
“To have seen much, and to have nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands.” – William Shakespeare, As You Like It 4.1
“I am a true labourer; I earn that I eat, get that I wear; owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness; glad of other men’s good, content with my harm.” – William Shakespeare, As You Like It 3.2
“He that wants money, means, and content, is without three good friends.” – William Shakespeare, As You Like It 3.2
“Nothing stokes human creativity like the desire to kill a motherfucker you don’t like.” – The Fat Electrician, “America’s Secret Weapon That Won WW2 – VT Fuze”
“How full of briers is this working-day world!” – William Shakespeare, As You Like It 1.3
“With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eye is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves. In their eyes the merit of an object which is in any degree either useful or beautiful, is greatly enhance by its scarcity, or by the great labour which it requires to collect any considerable quantity of it, a labour which nobody can afford to pay but themselves. Such objects they are willing to purchase at a higher price than things much more beautiful and useful, but more common.”– Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“Human food seems to be the only produce of land which always and necessarily affords some rent to the landlord.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“A good rice field is a bog at all seasons, and at one season a bog covered with water.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“The vine is more affected by the difference of soils than any other fruit tree. From some it derives a flavour which no culture or management can equal, it is supposed, upon any other. This flavour, real or imaginary, is sometimes peculiar to the produce of a few vineyards; sometimes it extends through the greater part of a small district, and sometimes through a considerable part of a large province.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“Good roads, canals, and navigable rivers, by diminishing the expence of carriage, put the remote parts of the county more nearly upon a level with those in the neighbourhood of the town. They are upon that account the greatest of all improvements.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“As men, like all other animals, naturally multiply in proportion to their means of subsistence, food is always, more or less, in demand.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“Before the invention of the art of printing, a scholar and a beggar seem to have been terms very nearly synonymous.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“The property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable. The patrimony of a poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands; and to hinder him from employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper without injury to his neighbour, is a plain violation of this most sacred property. It is a manifest encroachment upon the just liberty both of the workman, and of those who might be disposed to employ him. As it hinders the one from working at what he thinks proper, so it hinders the others from employing who they think proper. To judge whether he is fit to be employed, may surely be trusted to the discretion of the employers whose interest it so much concerns. The affected anxiety of the law-giver lest they should employ an improper person, is evidently as impertinent as it is oppressive.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One