Quotes from Adam Smith

The difference between the most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street porter, for example, seems to arise not so much from nature, as from habit, custom, and education.

The great secret of education is to direct vanity to proper objects.

The education of the common people requires, perhaps, in a civilized and commercial society, the attention of the public more than that of people of some rank and fortune.

In the common degree of the moral, there is no virtue. Virtue is excellence.

It appears, accordingly, from the experience of all ages and nations, I believe, that the work done by freemen comes cheaper in the end than that performed by slaves.

I have no faith in political arithmetic.

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