Top 43 Adam Smith Quotes (INVISIBLE HAND)

Top 10 Most Famous Adam Smith Quotes (BEST)

The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer.

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people. — There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining **money** from the pockets of the people.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

Labour was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased. — Labour was the first price, the original purchase – **money** that was paid for all things. It was not by **gold** or by **silver**, but by labour, that all **wealth** of the world was originally purchased.

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. — No society can surely be flourishing and **happy**, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

A nation is not made wealthy by the childish accumulation of shiny metals, but it enriched by the economic prosperity of its people. — A nation is not made **wealthy** by the childish accumulation of shiny metals, but it enriched by the economic **prosperity** of its people.

Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another. — Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this – no dog exchanges bones with another.

Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself.

8 Adam Smith Quotes on Life and Happiness

“The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become.”
Adam Smith

Nothing is more graceful than habitual cheerfulness. — Nothing is more graceful than habitual **cheerfulness**.

What can be added to the happiness of the man who is in health, who is out of debt, and has a clear conscience? — What can be added to the **happiness** of the man who is in **health**, who is out of **debt**, and has a clear conscience?

On the road from the City of Skepticism, I had to pass through the Valley of Ambiguity.

To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.

Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience. — Virtue is more to be **feared** than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.

Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse. — **Happiness** never lays its finger on its pulse.

“How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.”
Adam Smith

8 Wise Adam Smith Quotes to Ponder Upon

The learned ignore the evidence of their senses to preserve the coherence of the ideas of their imagination.

Problems worthy of attacks, prove their worth by hitting back.

All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.

Individual ambition serves the common good. — Individual **ambition** serves the common good.

Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man. — Humanity is the virtue of a woman, **generosity** that of a man.

The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.

What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. — What is **prudence** in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.

I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.

6 Adam Smith Quotes on Money and Richness

Every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of human life.

It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.

The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.

All money is a matter of belief. — All **money** is a matter of belief.

With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches.

No complaint… is more common than that of a scarcity of money. — No complaint… is more common than that of a scarcity of **money**.

5 Adam Smith Quotes on Economics and Government that will Make You Think

“But avarice and ambition in the rich, in the poor the hatred of labour and the love of present ease and enjoyment, are the passions which prompt to invade property, passions much more steady in their operation, and much more universal in their influence. Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many.”
Adam Smith

In regards to the price of commodities, the rise of wages operates as simple interest does, the rise of profit operates like compound interest.

As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.

The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities... — The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities…

Every tax ought to be levied at the time, or in the manner, in which it is most likely to be convenient for the contributor to pay…

6 Adam Smith Quotes on Labour and Trade

“It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.”
Adam Smith

Labor was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things. — Labor was the first price, the original purchase – **money** that was paid for all things.

“Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.”
Adam Smith

In general, if any branch of trade, or any division of labour, be advantageous to the public, the freer and more general the competition, it will always be the more so.

“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”
Adam Smith