“When Adam Smith was being incomprehensible, he didn't have the luxury of brief, snappy technical terms as a shorthand for incoherence.”

—  P. J. O'Rourke

Source: On The Wealth of Nations (2007), Chapter 2: "Why Is The Wealth of Nations So Damn Long?", p. 22

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 "When Adam Smith was being incomprehensible, he didn't have the luxury of brief, snappy technical terms as a shorthand f…" by P. J. O'Rourke?
P. J. O'Rourke photo
P. J. O'Rourke 185
American journalist 1947

Related quotes

Douglas Coupland photo

“Being alive is just a brief technicality.”

Douglas Coupland book Generation A

Source: Generation A (2009), p. 167

“Jake was being Subtle, which was only laughable; when he was straightforward he was incomprehensible.”

T. A. Waters (1938–1998) American magician

Source: The Probability Pad (1970), Chapter 14 (pp. 107-108)

Barack Obama photo

“Adam Smith, the father of free-market economics,”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2013, Remarks on Economic Mobility (December 2013)
Context: It was Adam Smith, the father of free-market economics, who once said, “They who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people should have such a share of the produce of their own labor as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged.” And for those of you who don’t speak old-English let me translate. It means if you work hard, you should make a decent living. If you work hard, you should be able to support a family.

Noam Chomsky photo

“We're supposed to worship Adam Smith but you're not supposed to read him. That's too dangerous. He's a dangerous radical.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Talk at Brown University (April 2010) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBfHD2n13OA
Quotes 2010s, 2010

“Smith didn't pay attention to that, he was looking the horse in the eye.”

Gary Ross (1956) American film director

Seabiscuit (2003)
Context: He was a small horse, barely fifteen hands. He was hurting, too. There was a limp in his walk, a wheezing when he breathed. Smith didn't pay attention to that, he was looking the horse in the eye.

Edmund Burke photo

“Mr. Burke talked in very high terms of Dr. Adam Smith; praised the clearness and depth of his understanding, his profound and extensive learning, and the vast accession that had accrued to British literature and philosophy from these exertions, and described his heart as being equally good with his head and his manners as peculiarly pleasing. Mr. Smith, he said, told him, after they had conversed on subjects of political economy, that he was the only man, who, without communication, thought on these topics exactly as he did.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

Robert Bisset, The Life of Edmund Burke. Volume II (London: G. Cawthorn, 1800), pp. 428-9
Undated

Thomas Robert Malthus photo

“…where are we to look for the consumption required but among the unproductive labourers of Adam Smith?…”

Thomas Robert Malthus Principles of Political Economy

Book II, Chapter I, On the Progress of Wealth, Section IX, p. 406
Principles of Political Economy (Second Edition 1836)

Pierre Trudeau photo

“As against the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith, there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane.”

Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) 15th Prime Minister of Canada

Part 3, 1974 - 1979 Victory And Defeat, p. 190
Memoirs (1993)

Fryderyk Skarbek photo

“Adam Smith, Say, and especially C. J. Kraus, one of the best teachers of Adam Smith’s theory, are my guides. The aim of my work is to present, in my own arrangement, their writings and thoughts clearly and plainly, together with some of my own observations.”

Fryderyk Skarbek (1792–1866) Polish noble

Introduction: Cited in: Hiroshi Mizuta, A Critical Bibliography of Adam Smith, Routledge, 20116. p. 173.
National Household, 1820

Thomas Robert Malthus photo

“When Hume and Adam Smith prophesied that a little increase of national debt beyond the then amount of it, would probably occasion bankruptcy; the main cause of their error was the natural one, of not being able to see the vast increase of productive power to which the nation would subsequently obtain.”

Thomas Robert Malthus Principles of Political Economy

Book II, Chapter I, On The Progress of Wealth, Section X, p. 422
Principles of Political Economy (Second Edition 1836)

Related topics