Adam Smith Quotes on Politics
Adam Smith was an 18th-century Scottish moral philosopher and political economist, a leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, and the founder of modern economics. This page collects quotes attributed to Adam Smith on the topic of politics, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
-
Attributed to Adam Smith:
“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.”
-
Attributed to Adam Smith:
“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.”
-
Attributed to Adam Smith:
“Defence is of much more importance than opulence.”
-
Attributed to Adam Smith:
“No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.”