A person who can acquire no property, can have no other interest but to eat as much, and to labour as little as possible. Whatever work he does beyond what is sufficient to purchase his own maintenance can be squeezed out of him by violence only, and not by any interest of his own. - Adam Smith
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. - Adam Smith
Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all. - Adam Smith
What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. - Adam Smith
No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. - Adam Smith
Where there is no property, or at least none that exceeds the value of two or three days' labour, civil government is not so necessary. - Adam Smith
No society can surely be flourishing and happy of which by far the greater part of the numbers are poor and miserable. - 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 self-interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own neccessities but of their advantages. - Adam Smith
The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions. - Adam Smith
Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality... for one very rich man, there must be at least five hundred poor. - Adam Smith
In the common degree of the moral, there is no virtue. Virtue is excellence. - Adam Smith
To attempt to increase the wealth of any country, either by introducing or by detaining in it an unnecessary quantity of gold and silver, is as absurd as it would be to attempt to increase the good cheer of private families by obliging them to keep an unnecessary number of kitchen utensils. - Adam Smith
Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience. - Adam Smith
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. - Adam Smith