[Governments are] …without exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society.
The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.
In the midst of all the exactions of government It is this effort, protected by law and allowed by liberty to exert itself in the manner that is most advantageous, which has maintained the progress.
Let us not, however, upon this account rashly conclude that she is capable of supporting any burden, nor even be too confident that she could support, without great distress, a burden a little greater than what has already been laid upon her.
Those unproductive hands may consume so great a share that all the frugality and good conduct of individuals may not be able to compensate this violent and forced encroachment.
No human wisdom or knowledge could ever be sufficient [for] the duty of superintending the industry of private people towards the employment most suitable to the interest of the society.
Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this – no dog exchanges bones with another.
The agents of [government] regard the wealth of their master as inexhaustible; are careless at what price they buy at what price they sell.
After all the proper subjects of taxation have been exhausted, if the exigencies of the state still continue to require new taxes, they must be imposed upon improper ones.
The uniform, constant and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite both of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations.
Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality… for one very rich man, there must be at least five hundred poor.
Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.
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.
What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?
Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.
No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.
There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.
The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.
The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.
All money is a matter of belief.
All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.
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