Liberty Quotes by Adam Smith

10 Liberty quotes by Adam Smith

Smith’s ideas on liberty are rooted in market dynamics and human nature. This brief selection of ten lines offers a clear snapshot of his economic philosophy.

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Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.

Adam Smith

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To subject every private family to the odious visits and examination of the tax-gatherers ... would be altogether inconsistent with liberty.

Adam Smith

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There is no art which government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.

Adam Smith

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The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition is so powerful that it is alone, and without any assistance,…

Adam Smith

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Every tax, however, is to the person who pays it a badge, not of slavery but of liberty. It denotes that he…

Adam Smith

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Every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of society as great as he can. He generally neither intends to promote…

Adam Smith

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Are you in earnest resolved never to barter your liberty for the lordly servitude of a court, but to live free, fearless,…

Adam Smith

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People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the…

Adam Smith

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It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from regard…

Adam Smith

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Such regulations may, no doubt, be considered as in some respect a violation of natural liberty. But those exertions of the natural…

Adam Smith

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More by Adam Smith

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

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“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

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Defense is superior to opulence.

Adam Smith

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“There is a great deal of ruin in a nation.”

Adam Smith

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“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

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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

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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

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Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.

Adam Smith

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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

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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

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A sketch of a man facing to the right.

Adam Smith

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

Adam Smith

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It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to…

Adam Smith

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When we have read a book or poem so often that we can no longer find any amusement in reading it by ourselves, we…

Adam Smith

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We are but one of the multitude, in no respect better than any other in it.

Adam Smith

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