“It was in the eighteenth century that England became what (Adam) Smith called "a nation of shopkeepers"… (p. 58)” — Jerry Z. Muller Copy Share Image
We're supposed to worship Adam Smith but you're not supposed to read him. That's too dangerous. — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
Adam Smith's huge failure was the fact that he did not foresee the industrial revolution. — P. J. O'Rourke Copy Share Image
Where are we to look for the consumption required but among the unproductive labourers of Adam Smith?. — Thomas Malthus Copy Share Image
I debated free trade in college. I came out as a free trader. I'm a free markets guy. I'm an Adam Smith… — Sam Wyly Copy Share Image
“Adam Smith himself made the analogy of the economy as a watch or a clock that once set in motion continues on… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
There is a lot in Adam Smith that reflects the insights of Rousseau and anticipates those of Marx. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
That invisible hand of Adam Smith seems to offer an extended middle finger to an awful lot of people. — George Carlin Copy Share Image
It is not for nothing that Skaldin in one part of his book quotes Adam Smith: we have seen that both his… — Vladimir Lenin Copy Share Image
Adam Smith is misread as being amoral precisely because people don't read his first book, because they don't read 'The Theory of… — P. J. O'Rourke Copy Share Image
When Adam Smith was being incomprehensible, he didn't have the luxury of brief, snappy technical terms as a shorthand for incoherence. — Anonymous Copy Share Image
It was the mystical dogma of Bentham and Adam Smith and the rest, that some of the worst of human passions would… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Adam Smith pointed out that there were three things that make us more prosperous, in a general sort of way: freedom to… — P. J. O'Rourke Copy Share Image
It always struck me as pretty cool that people who changed the world often knew each other. After reading them separately, hearing… — Joe Lonsdale Copy Share Image
I disagree with the followers of Marx and those of Adam Smith: the reason free markets work is because they allow people… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
But Adam Smith was a philosopher as well as well as an economist, famous in his time as much for his Theory… — Paul Ormerod Copy Share Image
Power is concentrated. The general policy is exactly the way that Adam Smith described it: it's designed for the benefit of its… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
Conservatives may worship Adam Smith's 'invisible hand,' but for Obama, the helping hand comes in large measure from the public, not the… — Jeff Greenfield Copy Share Image
Adam Smith was not a big fan of the pursuit of fame and fortune. His view of what we truly want, of… — Russ Roberts Copy Share Image
“A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him. They must even… — Bruce Watson Copy Share Image
Ask me not, 'Are you rightwing,' but ask me 'Are you a committed believer in individual freedom, the values of the enlightenment?'… — Niall Ferguson Copy Share Image
A few months ago people were talking about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Now the only hope is… — Jeffrey Garten Copy Share Image
“As Adam Smith argued more than two centuries ago, when individuals freely pursue their own self-interests—presumably, even their most trivial desires—the aggregate… — Paul Roberts Copy Share Image
Adam Smith was not the proponent of any one class. He was a slave to his system. His whole economic philosophy stemmed… — Robert Heilbroner Copy Share Image
“Which would have advanced the most at the end of a month—the boy who had made his own jackknife from the ore… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“It was the task of industrial society to destroy all of that. All that "community" implies -- self-sufficiency, mutual aid, morality in… — Kirkpatrick Sale Copy Share Image
“The strategy for the discoverers and entrepreneurs is to rely less on top-down planning and focus on maximum tinkering and recognizing opportunities… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Market forces have no intrinsically moral direction, which is why, before he wrote The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote The Theory… — Arianna Huffington Copy Share Image
“If you actually read The Wealth of Nations, you’d know that’s what capitalism is all about. Competition on a level playing field.… — Irving Belateche Copy Share Image
Adam Smith is an egalitarian, he believed in equality of outcome, not opportunity. He is an enlightenment figure, pre-capitalist. He says, suppose… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
“For Burke, almost everything that makes life worthwhile is a result of society, its inherited codes, knowledge, and institutions. These goods are… — Jerry Z. Muller Copy Share Image
The first and probably most fundamental aspect of this crisis is that we are now close to the commodification of everything. That… — Immanuel Wallerstein Copy Share Image
“Well, our economic system "works," it just works in the interests of the masters, and I'd like to see one that works… — Noam Chomsky Copy Share Image
“In the eighteenth century, the Scottish Enlightenment focused attention on Glasgow and Edinburgh as centres of intellectual activity. The Scottish Enlightenment was… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“In America, too, the reality behind the words of the Declaration of Independence (issued in the same year as Adam Smith’s capitalist… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
“How long will the Gilgamesh Project – the quest for immortality – take to complete? A hundred years? Five hundred years? A… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Survival of the fittest" in the commonly used animal sense is not a theory or principle for a "time-binding" being. This theory… — Alfred Korzybski Copy Share Image
“Ideally, a fair and equitable society would regulate debt in line with the ability to be paid without pushing economies into depression.… — Michael Hudson Copy Share Image
“Most people in the Great Britain of (Adam) Smith's day lived in what most of us would regard as poverty. Hundreds of… — Jerry Z. Muller Copy Share Image
“Back in Ancient Greece when Xenophon first posed the economic question, ‘How should a household best manage its resources?’ he was literally… — Kate Raworth Copy Share Image
