Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.
Adam Smith

The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.
Adam Smith

The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.
Adam Smith

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

The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts, and persist in doing so, generation after generation, through all changes of opinion and detail, is the one that must rule all observation.
Adam Smith

This is one of those cases in which the imagination is baffled by the facts.
Adam Smith

To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.
Adam Smith

Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.
Adam Smith

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

With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches.
Adam Smith