The quotations of

Adam Smith

Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

1723–1790

27 quotes, most often on Economics, Government and Work.

A gardener who cultivates his own garden with his own hands, united in his own person the three different characters, of landlord, farmer, and labourer. His produce, therefore, should pay him the rent of the first, the profit of the second, and the wages of the third.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)In context
- Money
- Work
In the long-run the workman may be as necessary to his master as his master is to him, but the necessity is not so immediate.
The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter VIII, p. 80.In context
- Economics
- Work
The greatest improvements in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment, with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.
The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter IIn context
- Economics
- Work
We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject.
The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter VIIIIn context
- Business
- Work
No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged.
The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter VIIIIn context

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