Quote

To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.

Adam Smith

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Adam Smith
Age: 67 †
Born: 1723
Born: June 16
Died: 1790
Died: July 17
Economist
Non-Fiction Writer
Philosopher
University Teacher
Writer
Lang Toun
Found
Projects
Empires
Government
Sight
Sole
May
However
Investing
Shopkeepers
Firsts
Whose
Extremely
Unfit
First
Nation
Project
Altogether
Great
Justice
Appear
Empire
People
Nations
Customers
Influenced
Purpose
Fit
Raising

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Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good.
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I am a beau in nothing but my books.
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The man scarce lives who is not more credulous than he ought to be... The natural disposition is always to believe. It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough.
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I have no faith in political arithmetic.
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When the profits of trade happen to be greater than ordinary, over-trading becomes a general error both among great and small dealers.
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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.
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This is one of those cases in which the imagination is baffled by the facts.
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The rate of profit... is naturally low in rich and high in poor countries, and it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin.
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No complaint... is more common than that of a scarcity of money.
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What can be added to the happiness of the man who is in health, who is out of debt, and has a clear conscience?
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By nature a philosopher is not in genius and disposition half so different from a street porter, as a mastiff is from a greyhound
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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.
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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.
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