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Nothing but the most exemplary morals can give dignity to a man of small fortune.

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
Dignity
Small
Moral
Give
Nothing
Giving
Exemplary
Men
Morals
Fortune

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Fear is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of government, and ought in particular never to be employed against any order of men who have the smallest pretensions to independency.
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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 real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.
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The game women play is men.
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Every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of society as great as he can. He generally neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. He intends only his own gain, and he is, in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was not part of his intention.
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There is no art which government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.
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No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.
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Nothing is more graceful than habitual cheerfulness.
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All jobs are created in direct proportion to the amount of capital employed.
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Every tax, however, is to the person who pays it a badge, not of slavery but of liberty. It denotes that he is a subject to government, indeed, but that, as he has some property, he cannot himself be the property of a master.
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Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality.
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The tolls for the maintenance of a high road, cannot with any safety be made the property of private persons.
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Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.
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The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition is so powerful that it is alone, and without any assistance, capable not only of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting 100 impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations.
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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.
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Have lots of experiments, but make sure they're strategically focused.
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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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It is not for its own sake that men desire money, but for the sake of what they can purchase with it.
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