Adam Smith

[Governments are] …without exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society.

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.

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

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

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.