Adam Smith

"Marriage is encouraged in China, not by the profitableness of children, but by the liberty of destroying them."

"The great affair, we always find, is to get money."

"When national debts have once been accumulated to a certain degree, there is scarce, I believe, a single instance of their having been fairly and completely paid. The liberation of the public revenue,…"

"What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom."

"Secrets in manufactures are capable of being longer kept than secrets in trade."

"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 p…"

"Upstart greatness is everywhere less respected than ancient greatness."

"Oatmeal indeed supplies the common people of Scotland with the greatest and best part of their food, which is in general much inferior to that of their neighbours of the same rank in England."