Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience. — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
“Virtue is excellence, something uncommonly great and beautiful, which rises far above what is vulgar and ordinary.” — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
In this consists the difference between the character of a miser and that of a person of exact economy and assiduity. The… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
The difference between the most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street porter, for example, seems to arise not so… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
Nothing but the most exemplary morals can give dignity to a man of small fortune. — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
“Two different sets of philosophers have attempted to teach us this hardest of all the lessons of morality. One set have laboured… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
In a militia, the character of the laborer, artificer, or tradesman, predominates over that of the soldier: in a standing army, that… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
A gardener who cultivates his own garden with his own hands, unites in his own person the three different characters, of landlord,… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
Poor David Hume is dying fast, but with more real cheerfulness and good humor and with more real resignation to the necessary course of… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
“The effects of the division of labour, in the general business of society, will be more easily understood by considering in what manner it… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
“The profligacy of a man of fashion is looked upon with much less contempt and aversion, than that of a man of meaner condition.” — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
Great ambition, the desire of real superiority, of leading and directing, seems to be altogether peculiar to man, and speech is the great instrument… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens. — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the affect of increasing wealth, so it is the cause of increasing population. To complain… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience? — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
