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Upstart greatness is everywhere less respected than ancient greatness.

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
Upstart
Respected
Everywhere
Ancient
Greatness
Less

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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.
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Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.
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To subject every private family to the odious visits and examination of the tax-gatherers ... would be altogether inconsistent with liberty.
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Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.
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Beneficence is always free, it cannot be extorted by force.
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Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.
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Labor was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things.
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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.
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Thus the labour of a manufacture adds, generally, to the value of the materials which he works upon, that of his own maintenance, and of his masters profits. The labour of a menial servant, on the contrary, adds to the value of nothing.
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I have no great faith in political arithmetic, and I mean not to warrant the exactness of either of these computations.
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He is led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention
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The property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable.
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Now many such things may be done without intitling the people to rise in arms. A gross, flagrant, and palpable abuse no doubt will do it, as if they should be required to pay a tax equal to half or third of their substance.
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I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.
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The division of labour was limited by the extent of the market
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The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the affect of increasing wealth, so it is the cause of increasing population. To complain of it, is to lament over the necessary effect and cause of the greatest public prosperity.
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Defense is superior to opulence.
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