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.
Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, Book I
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy! | In Romanian
The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions.
quote by Adam Smith
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Resentment seems to have been given us by nature for a defense, and for a defense only! It is the safeguard of justice and the security of innocence.
quote by Adam Smith
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Adventure upon all the tickets in the lottery, and you lose for certain; and the greater the number of your tickets the nearer your approach to this certainty.
quote by Adam Smith
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.
quote by Adam Smith
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Great ambition, the desire of real superiority, of leading and directing, seems to be altogether peculiar to man, and speech is the great instrument of ambition.
quote by Adam Smith
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Adam Smith
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Adam Smith
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Adam Smith
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Adam Smith
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
