Adam Smith

Beneficence is always free, it cannot be extorted by force.

Adam Smith

But one half the children born, it is computed, die before the age of manhood.

Adam Smith

By nature a philosopher is not in genius and disposition half so different from a street porter, as a mastiff is from a greyhound.

Adam Smith

China is a much richer country than any part of Europe.

Adam Smith

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.

Adam Smith

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.

Adam Smith

Defense is superior to opulence.

Adam Smith

Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and to keep out of the pockets of the people as little as possible, over and above what it brings into the public treasury of the State.

Adam Smith

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.

Adam Smith

For a very small expence the public can facilitate, can encourage, and can even impose upon almost the whole body of the people, the necessity of acquiring those most essential parts of education.

Adam Smith