Adam Smith

"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."

"The real price of everything... is the toil and trouble of acquiring it."

"Happiness never results from what we get, but from what we give."

"The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men."

"Justice is the main pillar that upholds the whole edifice."

"To feel much for others and little for ourselves is the perfection of human nature."

"The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour has been the effect of the division of labour."

"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature which interest him in the fortune of others."

"Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog."

"The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations."

"Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition."

"It is a matter of great importance that the labouring poor should be well informed."

"All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, is, at all times and in all cases, an odious maxim."

"Mercy and generosity are by all nations considered as highly respectable qualities."

"The ancient games of Greece were chiefly athletic exercises."

"When the happiness or misery of others depends in any respect upon our conduct, we dare not, as self-interest might suggest, either sacrifice them to that conduct, or even sacrifice anything to them."

"The regard to our own dignity is a principle of conduct of which I need not endeavour to explain at length the power and influence."

"The discipline of colleges and universities is in general contrived, not for the benefit of the students, but for the interest of the masters."

"The security of the sovereign depends much upon the knowledge which the people possess."

"Truth and probability, when they cannot be established by facts and reasoning, must be settled by analogy."

"The great mercantile republic of Venice is probably the most distinguished instance in history."

"It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts that occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people."

"In the great mercantile republic of Venice, we may observe a similar system."

"Commerce and manufactures can seldom flourish long in any state which does not enjoy a regular administration of justice."

"The chief cause of the great advancement of mathematics has been the invention of analysis."

"To be ancient is to be superior in wisdom and virtue."

"The beauty of a machine consists in its fitness for the purpose intended."

"The state of nature is not necessarily a state of peace."

"Revenge is the principal encomium of heroes."

"The spectator becomes a spectator because the action is pleasing to him."