Smith Quotes & FAQs
Explore thought-provoking quotes and frequently asked questions about Adam Smith. Gain deeper insights into the mind of the pioneering economist and philosopher, his perspectives on economics, morality, and society, all at Panmure House.
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Unless otherwise stated, all references to Smith are taken from the 1976 Clarendon Press edition of his works.

SOCIETY

'No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.’

Wealth of Nations, I:VIII, p.96.

THE DIVISION OF LABOUR

‘The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgement with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.’

Wealth of Nations, I:I, p.13.

EXCHANGE

‘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. 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.’

Wealth of Nations, I:II, p.26,27.

THE INDEX OF VALUE

‘Wages, profit, and rent, are the three original sources of all revenue as well as of all exchangeable value. All other revenue is ultimately derived from some one or other of these.’

Wealth of Nations, I:VI, p.69.

THE ‘AUTOMATIC’ MARKET

‘When the price of any commodity is neither more nor less than what is sufficient to pay the rent of the land, the wages of the labour, and the profits of the stock employed in raising, preparing, and bringing it to market, according to their natural rates, the commodity is then sold for what may be called its natural price.’

Wealth of Nations, I:VII, p.72.

MONEY AND VALUE

'But the amount of the metal pieces which circulate in a society, can never be equal to the revenue of all its members. As the same guinea which pays the weekly pension of one man to-day, may pay that of another tomorrow, and that of a third the day thereafter, the amount of the metal pieces which annually circulate in any country, must always be of much less value than the whole money pensions annually paid with them.....That revenue, therefore, cannot consist in those metal pieces, of which the amount is so much inferior to its value, but in the power of purchasing, in the goods which can successively be bought with them as they circulate from hand to hand.'

Wealth of Nations, II:II, p.291.

CAPITAL AND GROWTH

'In all countries where there is tolerable security, every man of common understanding will endeavour to employ whatever stock he can command in procuring either present enjoyment or future profit.'

Wealth of Nations, II:I, p.284-285.

PRODUCTIVE LABOUR

'Though the manufacturer has his wages advanced to him by his master, he, in reality, costs him no expence, the value of those wages being generally restored, together with a profit, in the improved value of the subject upon which his labour is bestowed. But the maintenance of a menial servant never is restored. A man grows rich by employing a multitude of manufacturers: He grows poor, by maintaining a multitude of menial servants.'

Wealth of Nations, II:III, p.330.

SURPLUS PROFIT

'Whatever part of his stock a man employs as a capital, he always expects is to be replaced to him with a profit. He employs it, therefore, in maintaining productive hands only; and after having served in the function of a capital to him, it constitutes a revenue to them.'

Wealth of Nations, II:III, p.332.

SAVING, NOT CONSUMING

'Whatever, therefore, we may imagine the real wealth and revenue of a country to consist in, whether in the value of the annual produce of its land and labour, as plain reason seems to dictate; or in the quantity of the precious metals which circulate within it, as vulgar prejudices suppose; in either view of the matter, every prodigal appears to be a publick enemy, and every frugal man a publick benefactor.'

Wealth of Nations, II:III, p.340.

INVESTMENT

'The person who employs his stock in maintaining labour, necessarily wishes to employ it in such a manner as to produce as great a quantity of work as possible. He endeavours, therefore, both to make among his workmen the most proper distribution of employment, and to furnish them with the best machines which he can either invent or afford to purchase.'

Wealth of Nations, II:introduction, p.277.

INCREASE IN PRODUCTION

'Whatever a person saves from his revenue he adds to his capital, and either employs it himself in maintaining an additional number of productive hands, or enables some other person to do so, by lending it to him for an interest, that is, for a share of the profits. As the capital of an individual can be increased only by what he saves from his annual revenue or his annual gains, so the capital of a society, which is the same with that of all the individuals who compose it, can be increased only in the same manner.'

Wealth of Nations, II:III, p.337.

'By what a frugal man annually saves, he not only affords maintenance to an additional number of productive hands, for that or the ensuing year, but, like the founder of a publick workhouse, he establishes as it were a perpetual fund for the maintenance of an equal number in all times to come.'

Wealth of Nations, II:III, p.338.

Unless otherwise stated, all references to Smith are taken from the 1976 Clarendon Press edition of his works.

‘No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.’

Wealth of Nations, I:VIII, p.96

‘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.’

Wealth of Nations, I:II, p.26-27

‘Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have property against those who have none at all.’

Wealth of Nations, V:I.b, p.715

‘Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.’

Theory of Moral Sentiments, II:II, p.88

‘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 publick good.’

Wealth of Nations, IV:II, p.456

‘This 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.’

Theory of Moral Sentiments, I:III, p.61

‘It must always be remembered, however, that it is the luxurious and not the necessary expense of the inferior ranks of people that ought ever to be taxed.’

Wealth of Nations, V:II.h, p.888

‘Nothing is more graceful than habitual cheerfulness.’

Theory of Moral Sentiments, I:II, p.41

‘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.’

Wealth of Nations, III:IV, p.418

‘Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition;…’

Wealth of Nations, V:I.g, p.796

‘The real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.’

Wealth of Nations, I:V, p.47

‘But 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.’

Wealth of Nations, I:XI.p, p.266

‘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.’

Theory of Moral Sentiments, I:I, p.25

‘The interest of [businessmen] is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the publick … 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 to oppress the publick...’

Wealth of Nations, I:XI.p, p.267

‘The necessaries of life occasion the great expence 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 publick expence, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.’

Wealth of Nations, V:II.e, p.842

‘Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself.’

Theory of Moral Sentiments, VII:II, p.280

‘With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches.’

Wealth of Nations, I:XI.c, p.190

‘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.’

Wealth of Nations, V:I.b, p.709-710

‘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.’

Wealth of Nations, I:V, p.48

‘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.’

Wealth of Nations, V:I.b, p.709-710

‘The great secret of education is to direct vanity to proper objects.’

Theory of Moral Sentiments, VI:III, p.259

‘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’

Wealth of Nations, IV:II, p.454-456

‘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 chuse to impress upon it.’

Theory of Moral Sentiments, VI:II, p.233-234

‘I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the publick good.’

Wealth of Nations, IV:II, p.456

‘A merchant, it has been said very properly, is not necessarily the citizen of any particular country.’

Wealth of Nations, III:IV, p.426

‘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.’

Wealth of Nations, I:IX, p.115

‘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.’

Wealth of Nations, V:II.b, p.825

‘He is … led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention’

Wealth of Nations, IV:II, p.456

‘Every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniencies, and amusements of human life.’

Wealth of Nations, I:V, p.47

‘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.’

Wealth of Nations, IV:VIII, p.660

‘Every man thus lives by exchanging.’

Wealth of Nations, I:IV, p.37

‘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 both of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration.’

Wealth of Nations, II:III, p.343

‘Goods can serve many other purposes besides purchasing money, but money can serve no other purpose besides purchasing goods.’

Wealth of Nations, IV:I, p.439

‘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 chuses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow citizens.’

Wealth of Nations, I:II, p.26-27

‘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 under-stocked, 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.’

Wealth of Nations, I:VII, p.78

‘Nobody but a beggar chuses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.’

Wealth of Nations, I:II, p.27

‘The world neither ever saw, nor ever will see, a perfectly fair lottery.’

Wealth of Nations, I:X.b, p.125

‘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.’

Wealth of Nations, I:X.c, p.138

‘Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.’

Wealth of Nations, V:I.b, p.715

‘Corn is a necessary, silver is only a superfluity.’

Wealth of Nations, I:XI.e, p.210

‘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.’

Wealth of Nations, V:I.f, p.760

‘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.’

Wealth of Nations, I:VIII, p.87

‘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 of a remedy.’

Wealth of Nations, IV:III.c, p.493

‘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.’

Wealth of Nations, V:I.g, p.798

‘The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.’

Wealth of Nations, I:I, p.13

‘Great nations are never impoverished by private, though they sometimes are by publick prodigality and misconduct.’

Wealth of Nations, II:III, p.342.