Adam Smith: Trending quotes (page 9)

“I have no great faith in political arithmetic, and I mean not to warrant the exactness of either of these computations.”

“The value of money is in proportion to the quantity of the necessaries of life which it will purchase.”

“There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.”

“Justice, however, never was in reality administered gratis in any country. Lawyers and attornies, at least, must always be paid by the parties; and, if they were not, they would perform their duty still worse than they actually perform it.”

“The establishment of any new manufacture, of any new branch of commerce, or any new practice in agriculture, is always a speculation, from which the projector promises himself extraordinary profits. These profits sometimes are very great, and sometimes, more frequently, perhaps, they are quite otherwise; but in general they bear no regular proportion to those of other older trades in the neighbourhood. If the project succeeds, they are commonly at first very high. When the trade or practice becomes thoroughly established and well known, the competition reduces them to the level of other trades.”

“We are delighted to find a person who values us as we value ourselves, and distinguishes us from the rest of mankind, with an attention not unlike that with which we distinguish ourselves.”

“The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.”

“It would be too ridiculous to go about seriously to prove that wealth does not consist in money, or in gold and silver; but in what money purchases, and is valuable only for purchasing. Money no doubt, makes always a part of the national capital; but it has already been shown that it generally makes but a small part, and always the most unprofitable part of it.”

“Secrets in manufactures are capable of being longer kept than secrets in trade.”

“If a workman can conveniently spare those three halfpence, he buys a pot of porter. If he cannot, he contents himself with a pint, and, as a penny saved is a penny got, he thus gains a farthing by his temperance.”

“The tolls for the maintenance of a high road, cannot with any safety be made the property of private persons.”

“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”

“The greatest improvement in the productive power of labour, and
the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is
anywhere directed, or applied, seems to have been the effects of
the division of labour.”

“And he stresses that ‘justice’ – not harming others – is fundamental to a
healthy human society”