Adam Smith

"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."

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

"In ease of body and 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 fightin…"

"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."

"The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes."

"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 opu…"

"When the happiness or misery of others depends in any respect upon our conduct, we dare not, as self–love might suggest to us, prefer the interest of one to that of many. The man within immediately ca…"