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Wonder... and not any expectation of advantage from its discoveries, is the first principle which prompts mankind to the study of Philosophy, of that science which pretends to lay open the concealed connections that unite the various appearances of nature.

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
Open
Discovery
Unite
Wonder
Various
Discoveries
Knowledge
Expectations
Concealed
Science
Advantage
Expectation
Nature
Mankind
Lays
Firsts
Principles
Appearance
Pretends
First
Philosophy
Principle
Prompts
Study
Connections
Appearances

More quotes by Adam Smith

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Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labor.
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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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The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.
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We are delighted to find a person who values us as we value ourselves, and distinguishes us from the rest of mankind, with an attention not unlike that with which we distinguish ourselves.
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Labor was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things.
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It must always be remembered, however, that it is the luxuries, and not the necessary expense of the inferior ranks of people, that ought ever to be taxed.
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But though empires, like all the other works of men, have all hitherto proved mortal, yet every empire aims at immortality.
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Nothing is more graceful than habitual cheerfulness.
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It is the natural effect of improvement, however, to diminish gradually the real price of almost all manufactures.
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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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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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Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another.
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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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Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.
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Men, like animals, naturally multiply in proportion to the means of their subsistence.
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The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.
Adam Smith
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The sneaking arts of underling tradesmen are thus erected into political maxims for the conduct of a great empire for it is the most underling tradesmen only who make it a rule to employ chiefly their own customers. A great trader purchases his good always where they are cheapest and best, without regard to any little interest of this kind.
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The tolls for the maintenance of a high road, cannot with any safety be made the property of private persons.
Adam Smith
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The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers.
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The game women play is men.
Adam Smith