“Goods can serve many other purposes besides purchasing money, but money can serve no other purpose besides purchasing goods.”

Source: (1776), Book IV, Chapter I, p. 471.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Goods can serve many other purposes besides purchasing money, but money can serve no other purpose besides purchasing g…" by Adam Smith?

Adam Smith photo

Adam Smith175

Scottish moral philosopher and political economist 1723–1790

Related quotes

“It is not for its own sake that men desire money, but for the sake of what they can purchase with it.”

Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

Source: (1776), Book IV, Chapter I, p. 471.

“My one purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.”

Jamie Zawinski (1968) American programmer

DNA Lounge blog http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2004/04.html#18

“Do not pursue money. He who pursues money will never achieve it. Serve! If you serve as best as you can, you will not be able to escape money.”

Tomáš Baťa (1876–1932) Czech businessman

Attributed to Tomas Bata in: Tribus, Myron. "Lessons from Tomas Bata for the Modern Day Manager." Tvůrčí odkaz Tomáše Bati a současné podnikatelské metody (2001).
Attributed to Tomas Bata

“It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.”

Ashleigh Brilliant (1933) American author and cartoonist

“The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others.”

Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher

Variant: The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.

“The living, he thought, should never be used to serve the purposes of the dead. But the dead—he glanced at Bruce, the empty shape beside him — should, if possible, serve the purposes of the living.
That, he reasoned, is the law of life.
And the dead, if they could feel, might feel better doing so.
The dead, Mike thought, who can still see, even if they can't understand: they are our camera.”

Philip K. Dick book A Scanner Darkly

Source: A Scanner Darkly (1977), Chapter 15 (p. 266)

“No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself.”

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works

English and Welsh (1955)

“It serves the purpose of not serving a purpose, surely quite a valid one.”

Peter Greenaway (1942) British film director

In an interview in Artforum, Nov. 83
Interviews

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

Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

Source: (1776), Book V, Chapter II, Part II, Article IV.

“The corporation was originally conceived as a public institution whose purpose was to serve national interests and advance the public good.”

Joel Bakan (1959) Canadian writer, musician, filmmaker and legal scholar

Source: The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (2004), Chapter 6, Reckoning, p. 153

Related topics