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
country citizens economics
A merchant, it has been said very properly, is not necessarily the citizen of any particular country.
ambition common beautiful-mind
Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good.
people prosperity economics
A nation is not made wealthy by the childish accumulation of shiny metals, but it enriched by the economic prosperity of it's people.
jobs investing proportion
All jobs are created in direct proportion to the amount of capital employed.
violence doe maintenance
Whatever work he does, beyond what is sufficient to purchase his own maintenance, can be squeezed out of him by violence only, and not by any interest of his own.
progressive-taxation people body
For a very small expence the public can facilitate, can encourage, and can even impose upon almost the whole body of the people, the necessity of acquiring those most essential parts of education.
errors ordinary profit
When the profits of trade happen to be greater than ordinary, over-trading becomes a general error both among great and small dealers.
men hands numbers
Capitals are increased by parsimony, and diminished by prodigalityand misconduct. By what a frugal man annually saves he not onlyaffords maintenance to an additional number of productive hands?but?he establishes as it were a perpetual fund for the maintenance of an equal number in all times to come.
running long may
In the long-run the workman may be as necessary to his master as his master is to him, but the necessity is not so immediate.
force beneficence
Beneficence is always free, it cannot be extorted by force.
military character army
In a militia, the character of the laborer, artificer, or tradesman, predominates over that of the soldier: in a standing army, that of the soldier predominates over every other character...
competition branches able
That a joint stock company should be able to carry on successfully any branch of foreign trade, when private adventurers can come into any sort of open and fair competition with them, seems contrary to all experience.
safety maintenance tolls
The tolls for the maintenance of a high road, cannot with any safety be made the property of private persons.
sacrifice law ideas
To hinder, besides, the farmer from selling his goods at all times to the best market, is evidently to sacrifice the ordinary laws of justice to an idea of public utility, to a sort of reasons of state; an act of legislative authority which ought to be exercised only, which can be pardoned only in cases of the most urgent necessity.