Adam Smith

All money is a matter of belief.

The profusion of government … [has] retarded the natural progress.

There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.

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.

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.

The highest perfection of politeness is only a beautiful edifice, built, from the base to the dome, of ungraceful and gilded forms of charitable and unselfish lying.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Should a man quit at 40 he is failure-Retire at that age is sorry failure.

Three most deleterious things of modern life in their present order of importance are: tobacco, alcohol and intemperate eating. Both alcohol and tobacco are taboo in plants.

People have the right to think and say whatever they want to. But you have the right not to take it to heart, and not to react.

Everybody should have the opportunity to do and be everything they can be.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

A committee can make a decision that is dumber than any of its members.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native criminal class except Congress.

When I’m feeling anxious or depressed, I do find it helps to reach for a pen and paper. There is something about writing things down, that hand-eye combination, that makes me feel calmer.

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.

I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more of a fool not afraid of rejection.