"No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable."
"In every part of the universe we observe means adjusted with the nicest artifice to the ends which they are intended to produce; and in the mechanism of a plant, or animal body, admire how every thing is contrived for advancing the two great purposes of nature, the support of the individual, and the propagation of the species."
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Source: Adam Smith, Robert L. Heilbroner, Laurence J. Malone (1987). “The Essential Adam Smith”, p.97, W. W. Norton & Company
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"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 first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer."
"A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation.Most government is by the rich for the rich. Government comprises a large part of the organized injustice in any society, ancient or modern.Civil government, insofar as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, and for the defence of those who have property against those who have none."
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