– Wealth, book 527
Free Enterprise, the Unpolitical Power of
Though the profusion of government must, undoubtedly, have retarded the natural progress of England towards wealth and improvement, it has not been able to stop it.
– Wealth, book 228
Good Cheer, Its Relationship to the National Current Account Deficit
To attempt to increase the wealth of any country, either by introducing or by detaining in it an unnecessary quantity of gold and silver, is as absurd as it would be to attempt to increase the good cheer of private families, by obliging them to keep an unnecessary number of kitchen utensils.
– Wealth, book 429
Greed, Why It Really Is Good and How a Greedy Mind Destroys Monopolistic Combinations among Merchants and Manufacturers
In a free trade an effectual combination cannot be established but by the unanimous consent of every single trader, and it cannot last longer than every single trader continues of the same mind.
– Wealth, book 130
Hate Crimes, Prosecution for
Sentiments, thoughts, intentions, would become the objects of punishment … Every court of judicature would become a real inquisition. There would be no safety for the most innocent and circumspect conduct. Bad wishes, bad views, bad designs, might still be suspected.
– Moral Sentiments, part 2 31
Hilton, Paris, the Numerous Feuds of, Explained
Rivalship and emulation render excellency, even in mean professions, an object of ambition, and frequently occasion the very greatest exertions.
– Wealth, book 532
Homeless, an Alternative View on the
The beggar, who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for.
– Moral Sentiments, part 433
Husbands
It is the interest of every man to live as much at his ease as he can; and if his emoluments are to be precisely the same, whether he does, or does not perform some very laborious duty, it is certainly his interest … either to neglect it altogether, or, if he is subject to some authority which will not suffer him to do this, to perform it in as careless and slovenly a manner as that authority will permit.
– Wealth, book 534
Husbands, Continued
To seem not to be affected with the joy of our companions is but want of politeness; but not to wear a serious countenance when they tell us their afflictions, is a real and gross inhumanity.
– Moral Sentiments, part 135
Immigration, Excessive Worries about
A man is of all sorts of luggage the most difficult to be transported.
– Wealth, book 136
Interior Decoration, Novel Suggestion for
Trophies of the instruments of music or of agriculture, imitated in painting or in stucco, make a common and an agreeable ornament of our halls and dining-rooms. A trophy of the same kind, composed of the instruments of surgery, of dissecting and amputation-knives, of saws for cutting bones, … etc. would be absurd and shocking.
– Moral Sentiments, part 137
Italy
Italy still continues to command some sort of veneration by the number of monuments which it possesses, though the wealth which produced them has decayed, and though the genius which planned them seems to be extinguished.
– Wealth, book 238
Limousine Liberals, Explanation for
The owners of great capitals … have generally either some direct share, or some indirect influence, in the administration of government. For the sake of the respect and authority which they derive from this situation, they are willing to live in a country where their capital … will bring them less profit.
– Wealth, book 539
Limousine Liberals, Real Explanation for
In public, as well as in private expences, great wealth may, perhaps, frequently be admitted as an apology for great folly.
– Wealth, book 440
Living Standards, Modern
The accommodation of a European prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of many an African king, the absolute master of the lives and liberties of ten thousand naked savages.
– Wealth, book 141
Malthus, Thomas, Refuted
The most decisive mark of the prosperity of any country is the increase of the number of its inhabitants.
– Wealth, book 142
Malthus, Thomas, Refuted Again
The demand for men, like that for any other commodity, necessarily regulates the production of men.
– Wealth, book 143
Monarchy or Democracy, Which Is Worse?
England … in time of peace, has generally conducted itself with the slothful and negligent profusion that is perhaps natural to monarchies; and in time of war has constantly acted with all the thoughtless extravagance that democracies are apt to fall into.
– Wealth, book 544
Money
Money … is a steady friend.
– Wealth, book 445
Money, a Steady Friend When We Can Find Him
When we have money we can more readily obtain whatever else we have occasion for, than by means of any other commodity. The great affair, we always find, is to get money.
– Wealth, book 446
Hereafter … the inhabitants of all the different quarters of the world may arrive at that equality of courage and force which, by inspiring mutual fear, can alone overawe the injustice of independent nations into some sort of respect for the rights of one another.
– Wealth, book 447
Off-Broadway Play, Idea for
The loss of a leg may generally be regarded as a more real calamity than the loss of a mistress. It would be a ridiculous tragedy, however, of which the catastrophe was to turn upon a loss of that kind.
– Moral Sentiments, part 148
Planning, Central, Nature of in USSR Foreseen
The fear of punishment can never be a motive of sufficient weight to force a continual and careful attention to a business.
– Wealth, book 549
Politics, Inherent Evil of Explained
It is unjust that the whole society should contribute towards an expence of which the benefit is confined to a part of the society.
– Wealth, book 550
Poor, but Happy
The vices of levity are always ruinous to the common people.
– Wealth, book 551
Presidents, Ex-
Of all the discarded statesmen who for their own ease have studied to get the better of ambition, and to dispise those honours which they could no longer arrive at, how few have been able to succeed?
– Moral Sentiments, part 152
Presidents, Ex-, Continued
With what impatience does the man of spirit and ambition, who is depressed by his situation, look round for some great opportunity to distinguish himself? … He even looks forward with satisfaction to the prospect of foreign war, or civil dissension.
– Moral Sentiments, part 153
Pride and Vanity, in Defense of
Pride is frequently attended with many respectable virtues … Vanity, with many amiable ones.
– Moral Sentiments, part 654
Quality, Guarantees of
Quality is so very disputable a matter, that I look upon all information of this kind as somewhat uncertain.
– Wealth, book 155
Reagan, Ronald, Original Source of a Phrase Popularly Attributed to
[Re: the East India Company] … waste which the fraud and abuse, inseparable from the management of the affairs of so great a company, must necessarily have occasioned.
– Wealth, book 456
Rich, the
With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eye is never so complete as w
hen they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves.
– Wealth, book 157
Riche, the Nouveau
Their wealth would alone excite the public indignation, and the vanity which almost always accompanies such upstart fortunes, the foolish ostentation with which they commonly display that wealth, excites that indignation still more.
– Wealth, book 558
Ruin, National
Be assured, there is a great deal of ruin in a nation.
– Smith, to a young man who'd brought him
the news of the British defeat at Saratoga,
saying the nation must be ruined59
Santa Claus, Why We Tell Children There Is a
There seems to be in young children an instinctive disposition to believe whatever they are told. Nature seems to have judged it necessary for their preservation that they should … put implicit confidence in those to whom the care of their childhood … is entrusted. Their credulity, accordingly, is excessive, and it requires long and much experience of the falsehood of mankind to reduce them to a reasonable degree of diffidence and distrust.
– Moral Sentiments, part 760
Scholars
Before the invention of the art of printing, a scholar and a beggar seem to have been terms very nearly synonymous.
– Wealth, book 161
Shopping
What is over and above satisfying the limited desire, is given for the amusement of those desires which cannot be satisfied, but seem to be altogether endless.
– Wealth, book 162
Social Security Explained
[In ancient Athens] children were acquitted from maintaining those parents in their old age, who had neglected to instruct them in some profitable trade or business.
– Wealth, book 563
Statistics, Everything You Need to Know about the Government's
I have no great faith in political arithmetic.
– Wealth, book 464
Success, Pro and Con
Power and riches … are enormous and operose machines … consisting of springs the most nice and delicate, which must be kept in order with the most anxious attention, and which in spite of all our care are ready every moment to burst into pieces, and to crush in their ruins their unfortunate possessor …
The pleasures of wealth and greatness … strike the imagination as something grand and beautiful and noble, of which the attainment is well worth all the toil and anxiety which we are so apt to bestow upon it. And it is well that nature imposes upon us in this manner. It is this deception which rouses and keeps in continual motion the industry of mankind.
– Moral Sentiments, part 465
Televangelists
Mendicant friars, whose beggary being not only licensed, but consecrated by religion, [are] a most grievous tax upon the poor people.
– Wealth, book 466
Televangelists, Success vs. Mainstream Protestant Clergy
Such a clergy, when attacked by a set of popular and bold, though perhaps stupid and ignorant enthusiasts, feel themselves as perfectly defenceless as the indolent, effeminate, and full-fed nations of the southern parts of Asia, when they were invaded by the active, hardy, and hungry Tartars of the North.
– Wealth, book 567
Tourists, the Kind Who Come Home Raving about the Excellence of Mass Transportation in Other Countries
In China, … the high roads, and still more the navigable canals, it is pretended, exceed very much every thing of the same kind which is known in Europe. The accounts of those works, however, which have been transmitted to Europe, have generally been drawn up by weak and wondering travellers; frequently by stupid and lying missionaries.
– Wealth, book 568
UN
The regard for the laws of nations, or for those rules which independent states profess or pretend to think themselves bound to observe in their dealings with one another, is often very little more than mere pretence and profession.
– Moral Sentiments, part 669
Veracity, Legislative
The printed debates of the House of Commons [are] not always the most authentic records of truth.
– Wealth, book 570
Verse, Blank
They do well to call it blank, for blank it is. I myself even, who never could find a single rhyme in my life, could make blank verse as fast as I could speak.
– Smith, to an anonymous newspaper interviewer71
Virtue, Economic Analysis of
The late resolution of the Quakers in Pennsylvania to set at liberty all their negro slaves, may satisfy us that their number cannot be very great.
– Wealth, book 372
Wages, Too Low Compared to Profits
The demand for those who live by wages … naturally increases with the increase of national wealth, and cannot possibly increase without it.
– Wealth, book 173
Wages, Too High Compared to Profits
The liberal reward of labour … to complain of it, is to lament over the necessary effect and cause of the greatest public prosperity.
– Wealth, book 174
War, as an Economic Stimulus without Which We Would Be Better Off
In the midst of the most destructive foreign war, … the greater part of manufactures may frequently flourish greatly; and, on the contrary, they may decline on the return of the peace. They may flourish amidst the ruin of their country, and begin to decay upon the return of its prosperity.
– Wealth, book 475
War, Public Fondness for
In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them, scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies. To them this amusement compensates the small difference between the taxes which they pay on account of the war, and those which they had been accustomed to pay in time of peace. They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to their amusement.
– Wealth, book 576
War, Smith's Plan for Curtailment of
Were the expence of war to be defrayed always by a revenue raised within the year, … wars would in general be more speedily concluded, and less wantonly undertaken.
– Wealth, book 577
Wives
The fair-sex, who have commonly much more tenderness than ours, have seldom so much generosity.
– Moral Sentiments, part 478
NOTES
CAS
Correspondence of Adam Smith. Edited by E.C. Mossner and I.S. Ross. Oxford, 1977. Liberty Fund, 1987.
DS
Stewart, Dugald. Collected Works. Vol. 10, Biographical Memoirs of Adam Smith, William Robertson, Thomas Reid. Edinburgh: T. Constable, 1858.
EPS
Essays on Philosophical Subjects. Edited by W.P. D. Wightman and J.C. Bryce. Oxford, 1980. Liberty Fund, 1982.
ISR
Ross, Ian Simpson. The Life of Adam Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
LJ
Lectures on Jurisprudence. Edited by R.L. Meek, D.D. Raphael, and P.G. Stein. Oxford, 1978. Liberty Fund, 1982.
Rae
Rae, John. Life of Adam Smith. London: Macmillan, 1895.
TMS
The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Edited by D.D. Raphael and A.L. Macfie. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976. Reprint, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982.
TRTS
Hayek, Friedrich A. von. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944.
West
West, E.G. Adam Smith. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1969.
W/L
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (2 vols.), edited by R.H. Campbell and A.S. Skinner, Oxford, 1976; Liberty Fund, 1981.
W/ML
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Edited by Edwin Ca
nnan. New York: Modern Library, 1937.
Chapter 1
1. W/ML 715
2. W/ML 90
3. DS 52
4. TMS 226
5. W/L 782
6. W/ML lix
Chapter 2
1. W/ML 932
2. W/L 124
3. TMS 28
4. West 111
5. Rae 269
6. W/ML 214
7. W/ML 552
8. W/ML 467
9. CAS 387
10. W/ML 148
11. W/L 388
12. W/ML xliii
Chapter 3
1. W/L 471
2. W/ML 584
3. EPS 105
4. Ibid.
5. TMS 82
6. TMS 9
7. TMS 16
8. TMS 9
9. TMS 106
10. TMS 304
11. TMS 137
12. Ibid.
13. TMS 247
14. TMS 86
15. Ibid.
16. TMS 142
17. TMS 241
18. TMS 25
19. TMS 184
20. TMS 118
21. TMS 25
22. TMS 219
23. TMS 272
24. W/ML 14
25. TMS 77
26. TMS 292
Chapter 4
1. W/ML 15