Adam Smith

On the road from the City of Skepticism, I had to pass through the Valley of Ambiguity.

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

Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this — no dog exchanges bones with another.

Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man.

No complaint is more common than that of a scarcity of money.

Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.

Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse.

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.

To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.

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 real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.

All money is a matter of belief.

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.