Adam Smith | Economist & Philosopher ✍️

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.

The world is full of fools, and he who would not see it should live alone and smash his mirror.

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

Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse.

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.

The uniform, constant, and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition, to improve his own lot, is what in all ages and nations constitutes the progress of improvement.

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.

To love our neighbor as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society that by that alone one might determine all the cases in social morality.

Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another.

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

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.

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

The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts is the one that must rule all observation.

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.

The division of labor is limited by the extent of the market.

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.

The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition... is so powerful a principle, that it is alone, and without any assistance, capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity.

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.

Labor was the first price, the original purchase-money that was paid for all things.

The first duty of the sovereign, that of protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies, can be performed only by means of a military force.