"No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable."
"The interest of [businessmen] is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public ... The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order ... ought never to be adopted, till after having been long and carefully examined ... with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men ... who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public."
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Source: The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Chapter XI, Part III, Conclusion of the Chapter, (p. 292), 1776.
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