Adam Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith– 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher, pioneer of political economy, and a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth5 June 1723
sea chinese superstitions
The ancient Egyptians had a superstitious antipathy to the sea; a superstition nearly of the same kind prevails among the Indians; and the Chinese have never excelled in foreign commerce.
doubt gold would-be
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.
government liberty citizens
Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.
purpose purchasing goods
Goods can serve many other purposes besides purchasing money, but money can serve no other purpose besides purchasing goods.
secret trade capable
Secrets in manufactures are capable of being longer kept than secrets in trade.
violence excited animosity
Mercantile jealousy is excited, and both inflames, and is itself inflamed, by the violence of national animosity:...
apology may wealth
In public, as well as in private expences, great wealth may, perhaps, frequently be admitted as an apology for great folly.
greatness ancient upstart
Upstart greatness is everywhere less respected than ancient greatness.
country party reality
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.
generations earth absurd
A power to dispose of estates for ever is manifestly absurd. The earth and the fulness of it belongs to every generation, and the preceding one can have no right to bind it up from posterity. Such extension of property is quite unnatural.
genius half different
By nature a philosopher is not in genius and disposition half so different from a street porter, as a mastiff is from a greyhound
mean animal two
In every part of the universe we observe means adjusted with the nicest artifice to the ends which they are intended to produce; and in the mechanism of a plant, or animal body, admire how every thing is contrived for advancing the two great purposes of nature, the support of the individual, and the propagation of the species.
purpose ends sole
Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.
kings fighting mind
In ease of body, peace of mind, all the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level and the beggar who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for.