Report on Manufactures (1791)
Context: Good roads, canals, and navigable rivers, by diminishing the expense of carriage, put the remote parts of a country more nearly upon a level with those in the neighborhood of the town. They are, upon that account, the greatest of all improvements. They encourage the cultivation of the remote, which must always be the most extensive circle of the country. They are advantageous to the town, by breaking down the monopoly of the country in its neighborhood. They are advantageous, even to that part of the country. Though they introduce some rival commodities into the old market, they open many new markets to its produce. Monopoly, besides, is a great enemy to good management, which can never be universally established, but in consequence of that free and universal competition, which forces every body to have recourse to it for the sake of self-defence. It is not more than fifty years ago that some of the counties in the neighborhood of London petitioned the parliament against the extension of the turnpike roads into the remoter counties. Those remoter counties, they pretended, from the cheapness of labor, would be able to sell their grass and corn cheaper in the London market than themselves, and they would thereby reduce their rents, and ruin their cultivation. Their rents, however, have risen, and their cultivation has been improved since that time.
“They are upon that the greatest of all improvements.”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist
Source: The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter XI, Part I, p. 174.
Context: Good roads, canals, and navigable rivers, by diminishing the expence of carriage, put the remote parts of the country more nearly upon a level with those of the neighbourhood of the town. They are upon that the greatest of all improvements.
“Accountability is mankind’s greatest obstacle. All our challenges stem from that.”
Marcus Orelias (1993) American actor, rapper, songwriter, author and entrepreneur
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher
Part III : Selection on Education from Kant's other Writings, Ch. I Pedagogical Fragments, # 52
The Educational Theory of Immanuel Kant (1904)
Ralph Venning (1621–1673) English minister
"The Triumph of Assurance", Orthodox Paradoxes, Or, A Believer Clearing Truth by Seeming Contradictions (1647), p. 48-49.
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Speech to Germans at Cincinnati, Ohio (1861), Commercial version
“But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist
Source: The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter VIII, p. 80.
Context: We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters, though frequently of those of the workman. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject.
Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist
Source: (1776), Book I, Chapter I, p. 7
Robert Owen (1771–1858) Welsh social reformer
A Development of the Principles & Plans on which to establish self-supporting Home Colonies (1841).
Janeane Garofalo (1964) comedian, actress, political activist, writer
Feel This Book, co-authored with Ben Stiller
from "Feel this Book"
Source: Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction
Context: Many people feel that mass acceptance and smooth socialization are desirable life paths for a young adult... Many people are often wrong... Don't bother being nice. Being popular and well liked is not in your best interest. Let me be more clear; if you behave in a manner pleasing to most, then you are probably doing something wrong. The masses have never been arbiters of the sublime, and they often fail to recognize the truly great individual. Taking into account the public's regrettable lack of taste, it is incumbent upon you not to fit in.
