108 quotes
Secrets in manufactures are capable of being longer kept than secrets in trade.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
In public, as well as in private expences, great wealth may, perhaps, frequently be admitted as an apology for great folly.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
Goods can serve many other purposes besides purchasing money, but money can serve no other purpose besides purchasing goods.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
It seldom happens, however, that a great proprietor is a great improver.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
In England, and in all Roman Catholic countries, the lottery of the church is in reality much more advantageous than is necessary.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
The importation of gold and silver is not the principal, much less the sole benefit which a nation derives from its foreign trade.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
The natural price, therefore, is, as it were, the central price, to which the prices of all commodities are continually gravitating.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
When the profits of trade happen to be greater than ordinary, over-trading becomes a general error both among great and small dealers.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
It is unjust that the whole of society should contribute towards an expence of which the benefit is confined to a part of the society.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
China is a much richer country than any part of Europe.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
Corn is a necessary, silver is only a superfluity.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
III. Every tax ought to be levied at the time, or in the manner, in which it is most likely to be convenient for the contributor to pay it.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
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.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
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 Wealth of Nations (1776)
The violence and injustice of the rulers of mankind is an ancient evil, for which, I am afraid, the nature of human affairs can scarce admit a remedy.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
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 Wealth of Nations (1776)