Adam Smith

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

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.

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

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

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

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing, but what you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.

The South has a future which it can shape for itself, and avoid the mistakes which the more populous parts of the country have made.

Does anyone ask their parents how they are conceived?

Trouble is part of your life — if you don’t share it, you don’t give the person who loves you a chance to love you enough.

Foolproof systems don’t take into account the ingenuity of fools.

Now payback is a bad bitch and baby, I’m the baddest.

We’re cool for the summer.

Much depends on people knowing what opportunity means; it doesn’t mean a silver platter, it oftener means a spade. Self-help means something sterner than ‘help yourself’–reach over and take it.

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. (The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are.)

You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about! You’re crazy!

Change isn’t a light switch; it’s slow and gradual.

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for truth.

A lot of people do have tragic childhoods. But you know what? Get over it.

I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.