Sourced and curated.

Economic literature · Philosophical literature

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 7.2

Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments · 1759

★ 7.1

With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches; which, in their eye is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves.

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 5.5

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments · 1759

★ 3.9

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

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 3.9

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

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 3.9

Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments · 1759

★ 3.8

All systems, either of preference or of restraint, therefore, being thus completely taken away, the obvious and simple system of natural liberty establishes itself of its own accord. Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man, or order of men.

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 3.8

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 3.8

We are delighted to find a person who values us as we value ourselves, and distinguishes us from the rest of mankind, with an attention not unlike that with which we distinguish ourselves.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments · 1759

★ 3.7

How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.

There are but three generations in America from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments · 1759

★ 3.7

Political literature

Andrew Carnegie

1886

★ 3.7

Essay · Scientific literature

Wonder... And not any expectation of advantage from its discoveries, is the first principle which prompts mankind to the study of Philosophy, of that science which pretends to lay open the concealed connections that unite the various appearances of nature.

1790

★ 3.6

The chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches.

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 2.3

The discipline of colleges and universities is in general contrived, not for the benefit of the students, but for the interest, or more properly speaking, for the ease of the masters.

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 2.1

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 2.1

Though our brother is upon the rack, as long as we ourselves are at our ease, our senses will never inform us of what he suffers. They never did, and never can, carry us beyond our own person, and it is by the imagination only that we can form any conception of what are his sensations... His agonies, when they are thus brought home to ourselves, when we have thus adopted and made them our own, begin at last to affect us, and we then tremble and shudder at the thought of what he feels.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments · 1759

★ 2.0

The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life seems to arise from overrating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Avarice overrates the difference between poverty and riches: ambition, that between a private and a public station: vainglory, that between obscurity and extensive reputation. The person under the influence of any of those extravagant passions is not only miserable in his actual situation, but is often disposed to disturb the peace of society, in order to arrive at that which he so foolishly admires.