Adam Smith Quotes (69 Quotes)

The contentious matter of whether or not to begin drilling in Alaska has no place in a bill that funds the Department of Defense. The needs of our troops serving in combat should never be subject to such cynical politics.

We know that not everyone agrees, and we want to do our best to respect their views, too.

The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.

We don't have permission to do that. We're a finding tool, like a digital card catalog.

What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?

Such is the delicacy of man alone, that no object is produced to his liking. He finds that in everything there is need for improvement.... The whole industry of human life is employed not in procuring the supply of our three humble necessities, food, clothes and lodging, but in procuring the conveniences of it according to the nicety and delicacy of our tastes.

Mankind are animals that makes bargains, no other animal does this.

This was a big win. These guys are a good team, so we didn't expect that one goal to hold up.

There's a lot of concern about the dependability of touch-screen voting, for example. Vote by mail may be low tech, but it works.

Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man or order of men.

It's kind of the way the season has gone for us.

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.

Iraq looks messier and messier. Gasoline prices have soared. The president's controversial plans for overhauling Social Security give Democrats a big cudgel to hammer Republicans among seniors.

Defense is superior to opulence.

I need more fights like that.

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.

I just saw people coming and going, and I asked if I could help.

It (Oxford) is a sanctuary in which exploded systems and obsolete prejudices find shelter and protection after they have been hunted out of every corner of the world.

To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers, but extremely fit for a nation that is governed by shopkeepers.