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The Problem With Fiat Money Is That It Rewards The Minority That Can Handle Money, But Fools The Generation That Has Worked And Saved Money.
-Adam Smith
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The Problem With Fiat

Adam Smith
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The Problem With Fiat Money Is That It Rewards The Minority That Can Handle Money, But Fools The Generation That Has Worked And Saved Money.

Understanding the Quote: "the problem with fiat money is that it rewards the minority that..."

This quote by Adam Smith reflects deeply on the theme of minorities. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Minorities, Rewards, Fool, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Adam Smith interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Adam Smith

Adam Smith is celebrated for insightful thoughts on minorities and rewards. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Minorities
Rewards
Fool
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Though The Profusion Of Government Must Undoubtedly Have Retarded The Natural Progress Of England To Wealth And Improvement, It Has Not Been Able To Stop It.
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Men Of The Most Robust Make, Observe That In Looking Upon Sore Eyes They Often Feel A Very Sensible Soreness In Their Own, Which Proceeds From The Same Reason; That Organ Being In The Strongest Man More Delicate, Than Any Other Part Of The Body Is In The Weakest.
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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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We Are But One Of The Multitude, In No Respect Better Than Any Other In It.
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The Directors Of Such Companies, However, Being The Managers Rather Of Other People's Money Than Of Their Own, It Cannot Well Be Expected, That They Should Watch Over It With The Same Anxious Vigilance With Which The Partners In A Private Copartnery Frequently Watch Over Their Own.... Negligence And Profusion, Therefore, Must Always Prevail, More Or Less, In The Management Of The Affairs Of Such A Company.
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The Difference Between The Most Dissimilar Characters, Between A Philosopher And A Common Street Porter, For Example, Seems To Arise Not So Much From Nature, As From Habit, Custom, And Education.
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Wherever There Is Great Property, There Is Great Inequality.
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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 Am Always Willing To Run Some Hazard Of Being Tedious, In Order To Be Sure That I Am Perspicuous; And, After Taking The Utmost Pains That I Can To Be Perspicuous, Some Obscurity May Still Appear To Remain Upon A Subject, In Its Own Nature Extremely Abstracted.
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An English University Is A Sanctuary In Which Exploded Systems And Obsolete Prejudices Find Shelter And Protection After They Have Been . Hunted Out Of Every Corner Of The World.
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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 Interest Of [businessmen] Is Always In Some Respects Different From, And Even Opposite To, That Of The Public ... The Proposal Of Any New Law Or Regulation Of Commerce Which Comes From This Order ... Ought Never To Be Adopted, Till After Having Been Long And Carefully Examined ... With The Most Suspicious Attention. It Comes From An Order Of Men ... Who Have Generally An Interest To Deceive And Even Oppress The Public.
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The Man Whose Whole Life Is Spent In Performing A Few Simple Operations, Of Which The Effects Are Perhaps Always The Same, Or Very Nearly The Same, Has No Occasion To Exert His Understanding Or To Exercise His Invention In Finding Out Expedients For Removing Difficulties Which Never Occur. He Naturally Loses, Therefore, The Habit Of Such Exertion, And Generally Becomes As Stupid And Ignorant As It Is Possible For A Human Creature To Become.
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The Discipline Of Colleges And Universities Is In General Contrived, Not For The Benefit Of The Students, But For The Interest, Or More Properly Speaking, For The Ease Of The Masters. Its Object Is, In All Cases, To Maintain The Authority Of The Master, And Whether He Neglects Or Performs His Duty, To Oblige The Students In All Cases To Behave Toward Him As If He Performed It With The Greatest Diligence And Ability.
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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.
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That This Is The Source Of Our Fellow-feeling For The Misery Of Others, That It Is By Changing Places In Fancy With The Sufferer, That We Come Either To Conceive Or To Be Affected By What He Feels, May Be Demonstrated By Many Obvious Observations, If It Should Not Be Thought Sufficiently Evident Of Itself. When We See A Stroke Aimed And Just Ready To Fall Upon The Leg Or Arm Of Another Person, We Naturally Shrink And Draw Back Our Own Leg Or Our Own Arm; And When It Does Fall, We Feel It In Some Measure, And Are Hurt By It As Well As The Sufferer.
Hurt
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For A Very Small Expence The Public Can Facilitate, Can Encourage, And Can Even Impose Upon Almost The Whole Body Of The People, The Necessity Of Acquiring Those Most Essential Parts Of Education.
Progressive Taxation
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That The Chance Of Gain Is Naturally Over-valued, We May Learn From The Universal Success Of Lotteries.
May
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Chance
The Learned Ignore The Evidence Of Their Senses To Preserve The Coherence Of The Ideas Of Their Imagination.
Ideas
Imagination
Coherence
A Sketch Of A Man Facing To The Right.
Men
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A Gardener Who Cultivates His Own Garden With His Own Hands, Unites In His Own Person The Three Different Characters, Of Landlord, Farmer, And Labourer. His Produce, Therefore, Should Pay Him The Rent Of The First, The Profit Of The Second, And The Wages Of The Third.
Character
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The Machines That Are First Invented To Perform Any Particular Movement Are Always The Most Complex, And Succeeding Artists Generally Discover That, With Fewer Wheels, With Fewer Principles Of Motion, Than Had Originally Been Employed, The Same Effects May Be More Easily Produced. The First Systems, In The Same Manner, Are Always The Most Complex.
Artist
Principles
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Mercantile Jealousy Is Excited, And Both Inflames, And Is Itself Inflamed, By The Violence Of National Animosity.
Violence
Excited
Animosity
On The Road From The City Of Skepticism, I Had To Pass Through The Valley Of Ambiguity.
Cities
Progress
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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.
Government
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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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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.
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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.
Philosophy
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The Game Women Play Is Men.
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Whenever The Legislature Attempts To Regulate Differences Between Masters And Their Workmen, Its Counsellors Are Always The Masters. When The Regulation, Therefore, Is In Favor Of The Workmen, It Is Always Just And Equitable; But It Is Sometimes Otherwise When In Favor Of The Masters.
Differences
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When Profit Diminishes, Merchants Are Very Apt To Complain That Trade Decays; Though The Diminution Of Profit Is The Natural Effect Of Its Prosperity, Or Of A Greater Stock Being Employed In It Than Before.
Complaining
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Prosperity
In Raising The Price Of Commodities, The Rise Of Wages Operates In The Same Manner As Simple Interest Does In The Accumulation Of Debt. Our Merchants And Master Manufacturers Complain Much Of The Bad Effects Of High Wages In Raising The Price, And Thereby Lessening The Sale Of Their Goods, Both At Home And Abroad. They Say Nothing Concerning The Bad Effects Of High Profits; They Are Silent With Regard To The Pernicious Effects Of Their Own Gains. They Complain Only Of Those Of Other People.
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Great Nations Are Never Impoverished By Private, Though They Sometimes Are By Public Prodigality And Misconduct.
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All For Ourselves, And Nothing For Other People, Seems, In Every Age Of The World, To Have Been The Vile Maxim Of The Masters Of Mankind.
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I Am A Beau In Nothing But My Books.
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The Liberal Reward Of Labor, Therefore, As It Is The Necessary Effect, So It Is The Natural Symptom Of Increasing National Wealth. The Scanty Maintenance Of The Laboring Poor, On The Other Hand, Is The Natural Symptom That Things Are At A Stand, And Their Starving Condition That They Going Backwards Fast.
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It Is Not By Augmenting The Capital Of The Country, But By Rendering A Greater Part Of That Capital Active And Productive Than Would Otherwise Be So, That The Most Judicious Operations Of Banking Can Increase The Industry Of The Country.
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Though Our Brother Is Upon The Rack, As Long As We Ourselves Are At Ease, Our Senses Will Never Inform Us Of What He Suffers. They Never Did And Never Can Carry Us Beyond Our Own Persons, And It Is By The Imagination Only That We Form Any Conception Of What Are His Sensations...his Agonies, When They Are Thus Brought Home To Ourselves, When We Have This Adopted And Made Them Our Own, Begin At Last To Affect Us, And We Then Tremble And Shudder At The Thought Of What He Feels.
Brother
Home
Agony
In Public, As Well As In Private Expences, Great Wealth May, Perhaps, Frequently Be Admitted As An Apology For Great Folly.
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May
Wealth
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.
Travel
Business
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The Subjects Of Every State Ought To Contribute Towards The Support Of The Government, As Nearly As Possible, In Proportion To Their Respective Abilities.
Government
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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.
Population
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Rewards
That A Joint Stock Company Should Be Able To Carry On Successfully Any Branch Of Foreign Trade, When Private Adventurers Can Come Into Any Sort Of Open And Fair Competition With Them, Seems Contrary To All Experience.
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Every Faculty In One Man Is The Measure By Which He Judges Of The Like Faculty In Another. I Judge Of Your Sight By My Sight, Of Your Ear By My Ear, Of Your Reason By My Reason, Of Your Resentment By My Resentment, Of Your Love By My Love. I Neither Have, Nor Can Have, Any Other Way Of Judging About Them.
Men
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Judging
A Nation Is Not Made Wealthy By The Childish Accumulation Of Shiny Metals, But It Enriched By The Economic Prosperity Of It's People.
People
Prosperity
Economics
The Great Secret Of Education Is To Direct Vanity To Proper Objects.
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Objects
The Principle Which Prompts To Save Is The Desire Of Bettering Our Conditiona Desire Which?comes With Us From The Womb And Never Leaves Us Till We Go Into The Grave.
Desire
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Graves
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. The Maxim Is So Perfectly Self-evident That It Would Be Absurd To Attempt To Prove It. But In The Mercantile System The Interest Of The Consumer Is Almost Constantly Sacrificed To That Of The Producer; And It Seems To Consider Production, And Not Consumption, As The Ultimate End And Object Of All Industry And Commerce.
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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.
Real
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The Cheapness Of Wine Seems To Be A Cause, Not Of Drunkenness, But Of Sobriety. ...people Are Seldom Guilty Of Excess In What Is Their Daily Fare... On The Contrary, In The Countries Which, Either From Excessive Heat Or Cold, Produce No Grapes, And Where Wine Consequently Is Dear And A Rarity, Drunkenness Is A Common Vice.
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People
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The Retinue Of A Grandee In China Or Indostan Accordingly Is, By All Accounts, Much More Numerous And Splendid Than That Of The Richest Subjects Of Europe.
Europe
Splendid
China
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. It Is Impossible Indeed To Prevent Such Meetings, By Any Law Which Either Could Be Executed, Or Would Be Consistent With Liberty Or Justice. But Though The Law Cannot Hinder People Of The Same Trade From Sometimes Assembling Together, It Ought To Do Nothing To Facilitate Such Assemblies; Much Less To Render Them Necessary.
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The Real Price Of Everything, What Everything Really Costs To The Man Who Wants To Acquire It, Is The Toil And Trouble Of Acquiring It.
Business
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Men
It Is Unjust That The Whole Of Society Should Contribute Towards An Expence Of Which The Benefit Is Confined To A Part Of The Society.
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Should
This Great Increase Of The Quantity Of Work Which, In Consequence Of The Division Of Labour, The Same Number Of People Are Capable Of Performing, Is Owing To Three Different Circumstances; First, To The Increase Of Dexterity In Every Particular Workman; Secondly, To The Saving Of The Time Which Is Commonly Lost In Passing From One Species Of Work To Another; And Lastly, To The Invention Of A Great Number Of Machines Which Facilitate And Abridge Labour, And Enable One Man To Do The Work Of Many.
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People
The Subjects Of Every State Ought To Contribute Toward The Support Of The Government, As Nearly As Possible, In Proportion To Their Respective Abilities; That Is, In Proportion To The Revenue Which They Respectively Enjoy Under The Protection Of The State ....as Henry Home (lord Kames) Has Written, A Goal Of Taxation Should Be To 'remedy Inequality Of Riches As Much As Possible, By Relieving The Poor And Burdening The Rich.'
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It Is The Natural Effect Of Improvement, However, To Diminish Gradually The Real Price Of Almost All Manufactures.
Real
Improvement
Natural
Virtue Is More To Be Feared Than Vice, Because Its Excesses Are Not Subject To The Regulation Of Conscience.
Fear
Vices
Excess
The First Thing You Have To Know Is Yourself. A Man Who Knows Himself Can Step Outside Himself And Watch His Own Reactions Like An Observer.
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Defense Is Superior To Opulence.
Opulence
Defense
Economy
With The Greater Part Of Rich People, The Chief Enjoyment Of Riches Consists In The Parade Of Riches.
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People
A Merchant, It Has Been Said Very Properly, Is Not Necessarily The Citizen Of Any Particular Country.
Country
Citizens
Economics
When The Toll Upon Carriages Of Luxury, Upon Coaches, Post-chaises, Etc. Is Made Somewhat Higher In Proportion To Their Weight, Than Upon Carriages Of Necessary Use, Such As Carts, Wagons, Etc. The Indolence And Vanity Of The Rich Is Made To Contribute In A Very Easy Manner To The Relief Of The Poor, By Rendering Cheaper The Transportation Of Heavy Goods To All The Different Parts Of The Country.
Country
Luxury
Necessary Use
Goods Can Serve Many Other Purposes Besides Purchasing Money, But Money Can Serve No Other Purpose Besides Purchasing Goods.
Purpose
Economics
Purchasing
Every Tax Ought To Be So Contrived As Both To Take Out And To Keep Out Of The Pockets Of The People As Little As Possible, Over And Above What It Brings Into The Public Treasury Of The State.
People
Pockets
Littles
It Is Not From The Benevolence Of The Butcher, The Brewer, Or The Baker, That We Expect Our Dinner, But From Regard To Their Own Interest. We Address Ourselves, Not To Their Humanity But To Their Self-love, And Never Talk To Them Of Our Own Necessities But Of Their Advantages. Nobody But A Beggar Chooses To Depend Chiefly Upon The Benevolence Of His Fellow Citizens.
Self
Humanity
Liberty
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.
Opposites
Competition
Different
It Appears, Accordingly, From The Experience Of All Ages And Nations, I Believe, That The Work Done By Freemen Comes Cheaper In The End Than That Performed By Slaves.
Believe
Age
Done
It Would Be Too Ridiculous To Go About Seriously To Prove That Wealth Does Not Consist In Money, Or In Gold And Silver; But In What Money Purchases, And Is Valuable Only For Purchasing. Money No Doubt, Makes Always A Part Of The National Capital; But It Has Already Been Shown That It Generally Makes But A Small Part, And Always The Most Unprofitable Part Of It.
Doubt
Gold
Doe
The Statesman Who Should Attempt To Direct Private People In What Manner They Ought To Employ Their Capitals Would Not Only Load Himself With Most Unnecessary Attention But Assume An Authority Which Could Safely Be Trusted To No Council And Senate Whatever, And Which Would Nowhere Be So Dangerous As In The Hands Of Man Who Have Folly And Presumption Enough To Fancy Himself Fit To Exercise It.
Exercise
Men
Hands
A True Party-man Hates And Despises Candour.
Hate
Party
Men
Consumption Is The Sole End And Purpose Of All Production.
Purpose
Ends
Sole
All Jobs Are Created In Direct Proportion To The Amount Of Capital Employed.
Jobs
Investing
Proportion
What Can Be Added To The Happiness Of The Man Who Is In Health, Who Is Out Of Debt, And Has A Clear Conscience?
Life
Motivational
Positive
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.
Art
Political
Empires
The Education Of The Common People Requires, Perhaps, In A Civilized And Commercial Society, The Attention Of The Public More Than That Of People Of Some Rank And Fortune.
People
Attention
Common
It Is Not The Actual Greatness Of National Wealth, But Its Continual Increase, Which Occasions A Rise In The Wages Of Labour. It Is Not, Accordingly, In The Richest Countries, But In The Most Thriving, Or In Those Which Are Growing Rich The Fastest, That The Wages Of Labour Are Highest. England Is Certainly, In The Present Times, A Much Richer Country Than Any Part Of North America. The Wages Of Labour, However, Are Much Higher In North America Than In Any Part Of England.
Country
Greatness
America
Such Regulations May, No Doubt, Be Considered As In Some Respect A Violation Of Natural Liberty. But Those Exertions Of The Natural Liberty Of A Few Individuals, Which Might Endanger The Security Of The Whole Society, Are, And Ought To Be, Restrained By The Laws Of All Governments; Of The Most Free, As Well As Or The Most Despotical. The Obligation Of Building Party Walls, In Order To Prevent The Communication Of Fire, Is A Violation Of Natural Liberty, Exactly Of The Same Kind With The Regulations Of The Banking Trade Which Are Here Proposed.
Wall
Communication
Party
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.
Luxury
People
Expenses
Man Is An Animal That Makes Bargains: No Other Animal Does This - No Dog Exchanges Bones With Another.
Funny
Dog
Animal
Both Ground- Rents And The Ordinary Rent Of Land Are A Species Of Revenue Which The Owner, In Many Cases, Enjoys Without Any Care Or Attention Of His Own. The Annual Produce Of The Land And Labour Of The Society, The Real Wealth And Revenue Of The Great Body Of The People, Might Be The Same After Such A Tax As Before. Ground-rents, And The Ordinary Rent Of Land Are, Therefore, Perhaps The Species Of Revenue Which Can Best Bear To Have A Peculiar Tax Imposed Upon Them.
Real
Land
People
That Wealth And Greatness Are Often Regarded With The Respect And Admiration Which Are Due Only To Wisdom And Virtue; And That The Contempt, Of Which Vice And Folly Are The Only Proper Objects, Is Most Often Unjustly Bestowed Upon Poverty And Weakness, Has Been The Complaint Of Moralists In All Ages.
Respect
Greatness
Age
Humanity Is The Virtue Of A Woman, Generosity That Of A Man.
Men
Generosity
Humanity
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.
Country
Men
Economic Inequality
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.
Hands
Invisible Hand
Liberty
Though The Principles Of The Banking Trade May Appear Somewhat Abstruse, The Practice Is Capable Of Being Reduced To Strict Rules. To Depart Upon Any Occasion From Those Rules, Is Consequence Of Some Flattering Speculation Of Extraordinary Gain, Is Almost Always Extremely Dangerous, And Frequently Fatal To The Banking Company Which Attempts It.
Practice
Principles
Banking
As Soon As Government Management Begins It Upsets The Natural Equilibrium Of Industrial Relations, And Each Interference Only Requires Further Bureaucratic Control Until The End Is The Tyranny Of The Totalitarian State.
Government
Upset
Management
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.
Sacrifice
Law
Ideas
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.
Business
Men
Animal
By Nature A Philosopher Is Not In Genius And Disposition Half So Different From A Street Porter, As A Mastiff Is From A Greyhound
Different
Genius
Half
To Subject Every Private Family To The Odious Visits And Examination Of The Tax-gatherers ... Would Be Altogether Inconsistent With Liberty.
Liberty
Would Be
Examination
This Is One Of Those Cases In Which The Imagination Is Baffled By The Facts.
Ignorance
Imagination
Facts
In Every Part Of The Universe We Observe Means Adjusted With The Nicest Artifice To The Ends Which They Are Intended To Produce; And In The Mechanism Of A Plant, Or Animal Body, Admire How Every Thing Is Contrived For Advancing The Two Great Purposes Of Nature, The Support Of The Individual, And The Propagation Of The Species.
Mean
Animal
Two
A Power To Dispose Of Estates For Ever Is Manifestly Absurd. The Earth And The Fulness Of It Belongs To Every Generation, And The Preceding One Can Have No Right To Bind It Up From Posterity. Such Extension Of Property Is Quite Unnatural.
Earth
Generations
Absurd
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.
Country
Ruins
Rich
By Pursuing His Own Interest (the Individual) Frequently Promotes That Of The Society More Effectually Than When He Really Intends To Promote It. I Have Never Known Much Good Done By Those Who Affected To Trade For The Public Good.
Invisible Hand
Done
Individual
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.
Happiness
Selfish
Men
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.
Add
Maintenance
Masters
The Man Of System Is Apt To Be Very Wise In His Own Conceit. In The Great Chess Board Of Human Society, Every Single Piece Has A Principle Of Motion Of Its Own Altogether Different From That Which The Legislature Might Choose To Impress Upon It
Wise
Men
Might
It May Indeed Be Doubted Whether Butchers' Meet Is Anywhere A Necessary Of Life. Grain And Other Vegetables, With The Help Of Milk, Cheese, And Butter, Or Oil Where Butter Is Not To Be Had, Afford The Most Plentiful, The Most Wholesome, The Most Nourishing, And The Most Invigorating Diet. Decency Nowhere Requires That Any Man Should Eat Butchers' Meat.
Men
Vegetarianism
Vegetables
Beneficence Is Always Free, It Cannot Be Extorted By Force.
Force
Beneficence
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.
Men
Foundation
Sacred
It Is Not For Its Own Sake That Men Desire Money, But For The Sake Of What They Can Purchase With It.
Men
Desire
Sake
Avarice And Injustice Are Always Shortsighted, And They Did Not Foresee How Much This Regulation Must Obstruct Improvement, And Thereby Hurt In The Long-run The Real Interest Of The Landlord.
Running
Hurt
Real
Labor Was The First Price, The Original Purchase - Money That Was Paid For All Things.
Labour Movement
Labor Day
Firsts
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.
Peace
Justice
Littles
The Great Affair, We Always Find, Is To Get Money.
Get Money
Affair
The Theory That Can Absorb The Greatest Number Of Facts, And Persist In Doing So, Generation After Generation, Through All Changes Of Opinion And Detail, Is The One That Must Rule All Observation.
Change
Numbers
Facts
But What All The Violence Of The Feudal Institutions Could Never Have Effected, The Silent And Insensible Operation Of Foreign Commerce And Manufactures Gradually Brought About.
Violence
Silent
Institutions
The Proprietor Of Stock Is Necessarily A Citizen Of The World, And Is Not Necessarily Attached To Any Particular Country.
Country
Citizens
World
The Man Of System, On The Contrary, Is Apt To Be Very Wise In His Own Conceit; And Is Often So Enamoured With The Supposed Beauty Of His Own Ideal Plan Of Government, That He Cannot Suffer The Smallest Deviation From Any Part Of It... He Seems To Imagine That He Can Arrange The Different Members Of A Great Society With As Much Ease As The Hand Arranges The Different Pieces Upon A Chess-board. He Does Not Consider That...in The Great Chess-board Of Human Society, Every Single Piece Has A Principle Of Motion Of Its Own, Altogether Different From That Which The Legislature Might Choose To Impress Upon It.
Wise
Men
Hands
Upstart Greatness Is Everywhere Less Respected Than Ancient Greatness.
Greatness
Ancient
Upstart
There Is No Art Which Government Sooner Learns Of Another Than That Of Draining Money From The Pockets Of The People.
Art
Government
People
It Seldom Happens, However, That A Great Proprietor Is A Great Improver.
Happens
The Annual Produce Of The Land And Labour Of Any Nation Can Be Increased In Its Value By No Other Means, But By Increasing Either The Number Of Its Productive Labourers, Or The Productive Powers Of Those Labourers Who Had Before Been Employed.
Mean
Land
Numbers
The Annual Labour Of Every Nation Is The Fund Which Originally Supplies It With All The Necessaries And Conveniencies Of Life Which It Annually Consumes, And Which Consist Always Either In The Immediate Produce Of That Labour, Or In What Is Purchased With That Produce From Other Nations.
Origin Of Life
Produce
Wealth Of Nations
A Very Poor Man May Be Said In Some Sense To Have A Demand For A Coach And Six; He Might Like To Have It; But His Demand Is Not An Effectual Demand, As The Commodity Can Never Be Brought To Market In Order To Satisfy It.
Men
Order
Demand
China Is A Much Richer Country Than Any Part Of Europe.
Country
Europe
China
Capitals Are Increased By Parsimony, And Diminished By Prodigalityand Misconduct. By What A Frugal Man Annually Saves He Not Onlyaffords Maintenance To An Additional Number Of Productive Hands?but?he Establishes As It Were A Perpetual Fund For The Maintenance Of An Equal Number In All Times To Come.
Men
Hands
Numbers
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.
Invisible Hand
People
Competition
All Money Is A Matter Of Belief.
Believe
Matter
Belief
In The Long-run The Workman May Be As Necessary To His Master As His Master Is To Him, But The Necessity Is Not So Immediate.
Running
Long
May
But Avarice And Ambition In The Rich, In The Poor The Hatred Of Labour And The Love Of Present Ease And Enjoyment, Are The Passions Which Prompt To Invade Property, Passions Much More Steady In Their Operation, And Much More Universal In Their Influence. Wherever There Is Great Property There Is Great Inequality. For One Very Rich Man There Must Be At Least Five Hundred Poor, And The Affluence Of The Few Supposes The Indigence Of The Many.
Affluence
Making Money
Rich
But Poverty, Though It Does Not Prevent The Generation, Is Extremely Unfavourable To The Rearing Of Children. The Tender Plant Is Produced, But In So Cold A Soil, And So Severe A Climate, Soon Withers And Dies.
Children
Science
Climate
The Tolls For The Maintenance Of A High Road, Cannot With Any Safety Be Made The Property Of Private Persons.
Safety
Maintenance
Tolls
Science Is The Great Antidote To The Poison Of Enthusiasm And Superstition.
Science
Flames
Enthusiasm
The Disposition To Admire, And Almost To Worship, The Rich And The Powerful, And To Despise, Or, At Least, To Neglect Persons Of Poor And Mean Condition Is The Great And Most Universal Cause Of The Corruption Of Our Moral Sentiments.
Powerful
Mean
Causes
Man Naturally Desires, Not Only To Be Loved, But To Be Lovely; Or To Be That Thing Which Is The Natural And Proper Object Of Love.
Men
Lovely
Desire
I Have No Great Faith In Political Arithmetic, And I Mean Not To Warrant The Exactness Of Either Of These Computations.
Mean
Political
Arithmetic
The Uniform, Constant, And Uninterrupted Effort Of Every Man To Better His Condition . . . Is Frequently Powerful Enough To Maintain The Natural Progress Of Things Toward Improvement, In Spite Of The Extravagance Of Government, And Of The Greatest Errors Of Administration.
Powerful
Men
Errors
A Man Must Always Live By His Work, And His Wages Must At Least Be Sufficient To Maintain Him. They Must Even Upon Most Occasions Be Somewhat More; Otherwise It Would Be Impossible For Him To Bring Up A Family, And The Race Of Such Workmen Could Not Last Beyond The First Generation.
Men
Race
Would Be
The Man Who Barely Abstains From Violating Either The Person, Or The Estate, Or The Reputation Of His Neighbours, Has Surely Very Little Positive Merit. He Fulfils, However, All The Rules Of What Is Peculiarly Called Justice, And Does Every Thing Which His Equals Can With Propriety Force Him To Do, Or Which They Can Punish Him For Not Doing. We May Often Fulfil All The Rules Of Justice By Sitting Still And Doing Nothing.
Men
Sitting Still
Justice
Sugar, Rum And Tobacco Are Commodities Which Are Nowhere Necessaries Of Life, Which Are Become Objects Of Almost Universal Consumption, And Which Are Therefore Extremely Proper Subjects Of Taxation.
Taxation
Sugar
Commodity
The Natural Price, Therefore, Is, As It Were, The Central Price, To Which The Prices Of All Commodities Are Continually Gravitating.
Commodity
Natural
Wealth Of Nations
Corn Is A Necessary, Silver Is Only A Superfluity.
Corn
Silver
As We Have No Immediate Experience Of What Other Men Feel, We Can Form No Idea Of The Manner In Which They Are Affected, But By Conceiving What We Ourselves Should Feel In The Like Situation.
Men
Ideas
Empathy
What Is Prudence In The Conduct Of Every Private Family Can Scarce Be Folly In That Of A Great Kingdom.
Invisible Hand
Kingdoms
Economic
When We Have Read A Book Or Poem So Often That We Can No Longer Find Any Amusement In Reading It By Ourselves, We Can Still Take Pleasure In Reading It To A Companion. To Him It Has All The Graces Of Novelty.
Book
Reading
Grace
No Society Can Surely Be Flourishing And Happy, Of Which The Far Greater Part Of The Members Are Poor And Miserable.
Happiness
Equality
Society
An Instructed And Intelligent People Are Always More Decent And Orderly Than An Ignorant And Stupid One.
Stupid
Intelligent
People
All Registers Which, It Is Acknowledged, Ought To Be Kept Secret, Ought Certainly Never To Exist.
Secret
Kept Secrets
Register
Are You In Earnest Resolved Never To Barter Your Liberty For The Lordly Servitude Of A Court, But To Live Free, Fearless, And Independent? There Seems To Be One Way To Continue In That Virtuous Resolution; And Perhaps But One. Never Enter The Place From Whence So Few Have Been Able To Return; Never Come Within The Circle Of Ambition; Nor Ever Bring Yourself Into Comparison With Those Masters Of The Earth Who Have Already Engrossed The Attention Of Half Mankind Before You.
Ambition
Independent
Circles
The Mob, When They Are Gazing At A Dancer On The Slack Rope, Naturally Writhe And Twist And Balance Their Own Bodies, As They See Him Do.
Empathy
Dancer
Balance
Happiness Never Lays Its Finger On Its Pulse.
Happiness
Happy
Pulse
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.
Reality
Government
Libertarian
The Emotions Of The Spectator Will Still Be Very Apt To Fall Short Of The Violence Of What Is Felt By The Sufferer. Mankind, Though Naturally Sympathetic, Never Conceive, For What Has Befallen Another, That Degree Of Passion Which Naturally Animates The Person Principally Concerned.
Fall
Passion
Empathy
The Ancient Egyptians Had A Superstitious Antipathy To The Sea; A Superstition Nearly Of The Same Kind Prevails Among The Indians; And The Chinese Have Never Excelled In Foreign Commerce.
Sea
Chinese
Superstitions
Justice, However, Never Was In Reality Administered Gratis In Any Country. Lawyers And Attornies, At Least, Must Always Be Paid By The Parties; And, If They Were Not, They Would Perform Their Duty Still Worse Than They Actually Perform It.
Country
Party
Reality
No Society Can Surely Be Flourishing And Happy, Of Which The Far Greater Part Of The Members Are Poor And Miserable. It Is But Equity, Besides, That They Who Feed, Clothe And Lodge The Whole Body Of The People, Should Have Such A Share Of The Produce Of Their Own Labour As To Be Themselves Tolerably Well Fed, Clothed And Lodged.
Should Have
People
Body
Nobody But A Beggar Chooses To Depend Chiefly Upon The Benevolence Of His Fellow-citizens.
Government
Liberty
Citizens
Good Roads, Canals, And Navigable Rivers, By Diminishing The Expence Of Carriage, Put The Remote Parts Of The Country More Nearly Upon A Level With With Those Of The Neighbourhood Of The Town. They Are Upon That The Greatest Of All Improvements.
Country
Rivers
Levels
Every Individual Is Continually Exerting Himself To Find Out The Most Advantageous Employment For Whatever Capital He Can Command. It Is His Own Advantage, Indeed, And Not That Of The Society Which He Has In View. But The Study Of His Own Advantage Naturally, Or Rather Necessarily, Leads Him To Prefer That Employment Which Is Most Advantageous To Society... 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
Views
Hands
Invisible Hand
Every Man Lives By Exchanging.
Men
Economics
Trade
It Is The Highest Impertinence And Presumption, Therefore, In Kings And Ministers To Pretend To Watch Over The Economy Of Private People, And To Restrain Their Expense. They Are Themselves, Always, And Without Any Exception, The Greatest Spendthrifts In The Society.
Kings
Invisible Hand
People
It Is Not Very Unreasonable That The Rich Should Contribute To The Public Expense, Not Only In Proportion To Their Revenue, But Something More Than In That Proportion.
Progressive Taxation
Rich
Economics
Ask Any Rich Man Of Common Prudence To Which Of The Two Sorts Of People He Has Lent The Greater Part Of His Stock, To Those Who, He Thinks, Will Employ It Profitably, Or To Those Who Will Spend It Idly, And He Will Laugh At You For Proposing The Question.
Men
Thinking
Two
The Violence And Injustice Of The Rulers Of Mankind Is An Ancient Evil, For Which, I Am Afraid, The Nature Of Human Affairs Can Scarce Admit A Remedy.
Evil
Violence
Injustice
I Have No Faith In Political Arithmetic.
Faith
Math
Political
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.
Government
Sight
People
The Necessaries Of Life Occasion The Great Expense Of The Poor. They Find It Difficult To Get Food, And The Greater Part Of Their Little Revenue Is Spent In Getting It. The Luxuries And Vanities Of Life Occasion The Principal Expense Of The Rich, And A Magnificent House Embellishes And Sets Off To The Best Advantage All The Other Luxuries And Vanities Which They Possess ... It Is Not Very Unreasonable That The Rich Should Contribute To The Public Expense, Not Only In Proportion To Their Revenue, But Something More Than In That Proportion.
Vanity
Progressive Taxation
Luxury
A Criminal Is A Person With Predatory Instincts Who Has Not Sufficient Capital To Form A Corporation.most Government Is By The Rich For The Rich. Government Comprises A Large Part Of The Organized Injustice In Any Society, Ancient Or Modern.civil Government, Insofar As It Is Instituted For The Security Of Property, Is In Reality Instituted For The Defence Of The Rich Against The Poor, And For The Defence Of Those Who Have Property Against Those Who Have None.
Reality
Government
Criminals
Man, An Animal That Makes Bargains.
Animal
Men
Agreement
In A Militia, The Character Of The Laborer, Artificer, Or Tradesman, Predominates Over That Of The Soldier: In A Standing Army, That Of The Soldier Predominates Over Every Other Character.
Military
Character
Army
The Problem With Fiat Money Is That It Rewards The Minority That Can Handle Money, But Fools The Generation That Has Worked And Saved Money.
Minorities
Rewards
Fool
Mercy To The Guilty Is Cruelty To The Innocent.
Patriotic
Government
Libertarian
We Rarely Hear, It Has Been Said, Of The Combinations [that Is, Unions Or Colluding Organizations] Of Masters, Though Frequently Of Those Of Workmen. But Whoever Imagines, Upon This Account, That Masters Rarely Combine, Is As Ignorant Of The World As Of The Subject. Masters Are Always And Everywhere In A Sort Of Tacit, But Constant And Uniform Combination, Not To Raise The Wages Of Labor Above Their Actual Price.
Organization
Ignorant
World
It Is The Interest Of Every Man To Live As Much At His Ease As He Can; And If His Emoluments Are To Be Precisely The Same, Whether He Does Or Does Not Perform Some Very Laborious Duty, It Is Certainly His Interest, At Least As Interest Is Vulgarly Understood, Either To Neglect It Altogether, Or, If He Is Subject To Some Authority Which Will Not Suffer Him To Do This, To Perform It In As Careless And Slovenly A Manner As That Authority Will Permit.
Men
Suffering
Doe
Nothing But The Most Exemplary Morals Can Give Dignity To A Man Of Small Fortune.
Men
Giving
Moral
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.
Men
Order
Cases
No Complaint... Is More Common Than That Of A Scarcity Of Money.
Money
Reality
Scarcity
A Monopoly Granted Either To An Individual Or To A Trading Company Has The Same Effect As A Secret In Trade Or Manufactures. The Monopolists, By Keeping The Market Constantly Understocked, By Never Fully Supplying The Effectual Demand, Sell Their Commodities Much Above The Natural Price, And Raise Their Emoluments, Whether They Consist In Wages Or Profit, Greatly Above Their Natural Rate.
Competition
Secret
Demand
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.
Real
Ambition
Men
But Though Empires, Like All The Other Works Of Men, Have All Hitherto Proved Mortal, Yet Every Empire Aims At Immortality.
Men
Empires
Immortality
The Value Of Any Commodity, Therefore, To The Person Who Possesses It, And Who Means Not To Use Or Consume It Himself, But To Exchange It For Other Commodities, Is Equal To The Quantity Of Labour Which It Enables Him To Purchase Or Command. Labour, Therefore, Is The Real Measure Of The Exchangeable Value Of All Commodities. The Real Price Of Everything, What Everything Really Costs To The Man Who Wants To Acquire It, Is The Toil And Trouble Of Acquiring It.
Real
Mean
Men
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.
Money
Labour Movement
Labor Day
Every Man Is Rich Or Poor According To The Degree In Which He Can Afford To Enjoy The Necessaries, Conveniences, And Amusements Of Human Life.
Money
Men
Rich Or Poor
I Have Never Known Much Good Done By Those Who Affected To Trade For The Public Good.
Government
Invisible Hand
Economic Order
Men Desire To Have Some Share In The Management Of Public Affairs Chiefly On Account Of The Importance Which It Gives Them.
Men
Giving
Desire
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.
Powerful
Law
Effort
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.
Attention
Mankind
Persons
Wherever There Is Great Property There Is Great Inequality. For One Very Rich Man There Must Be At Least Five Hundred Poor, And The Affluence Of The Few Supposes The Indigence Of The Many. 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.
Men
Envy
Want
The Importation Of Gold And Silver Is Not The Principal, Much Less The Sole Benefit Which A Nation Derives From Its Foreign Trade.
Gold
Benefits
Silver
Whatever Work He Does, Beyond What Is Sufficient To Purchase His Own Maintenance, Can Be Squeezed Out Of Him By Violence Only, And Not By Any Interest Of His Own.
Doe
Maintenance
Violence
Poor David Hume Is Dying Fast, But With More Real Cheerfulness And Good Humor And With More Real Resignation To The Necessary Course Of Things, Than Any Whining Christian Ever Dyed With Pretended Resignation To The Will Of God.
Christian
Fake People
Real
The Division Of Labour Was Limited By The Extent Of The Market
Division
Economics
Labour
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.
Division Of Labor
Skills
Dexterity
In This Consists The Difference Between The Character Of A Miser And That Of A Person Of Exact Economy And Assiduity. The One Is Anxious About Small Matters For Their Own Sake; The Other Attends To Them Only In Consequence Of The Scheme Of Life Which He Has Laid Down To Himself.
Character
Differences
Matter
To Feel Much For Others And Little For Ourselves, That To Restrain Our Selfish, And To Indulge Our Benevolent Affections, Constitutes The Perfection Of Human Nature.
Exercise
Perfection
Selfishness
The World Neither Ever Saw, Nor Ever Will See, A Perfectly Fair Lottery.
World
Saws
Fairs
With The Greater Part Of Rich People, The Chief Enjoyment Of Riches Consists In The Parade Of Riches, Which In Their Eye Is Never So Complete As When They Appear To Possess Those Decisive Marks Of Opulence Which Nobody Can Possess But Themselves.
Eye
People
Opulence
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.
Kings
Fighting
Mind
Nothing Is More Graceful Than Habitual Cheerfulness.
Happiness
Cheerfulness
Habitual
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.
Competition
Division
Branches
Men, Like Animals, Naturally Multiply In Proportion To The Means Of Their Subsistence.
Mean
Animal
Men
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.
Business
Invisible Hand
Government
Nobody Ever Saw A Dog Make A Fair And Deliberate Exchange Of One Bone For Another With Another Dog.
Dog
Saws
Bones
To Expect, Indeed, That The Freedom Of Trade Should Ever Be Entirely Restored In Great Britain, Is As Absurd As To Expect That An Oceana Or Utopia Should Never Be Established In It.
Utopia
Absurd
Should
Secrets In Manufactures Are Capable Of Being Longer Kept Than Secrets In Trade.
Secret
Trade
Capable
Individual Ambition Serves The Common Good.
Ambition
Common
Beautiful Mind
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