The real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.
Source: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, book 1 (1776)
Author
Scottish · 1723-1790 · 10 quotes
Scottish · 1723–1790
10 quotes in our collection
Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and economist whose work became foundational for modern political economy. His major books are The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Smith matters because he studied both sympathy and markets, refusing to reduce human life to either benevolence or self-interest alone. The Wealth of Nations analyzed division of labor, exchange, productivity, money, trade, and the limits of mercantilism, while The Theory of Moral Sentiments explored moral judgment, imagination, and the impartial spectator. Smith's thought is often simplified, but his work is broader, more ethical, and more institutional than slogans suggest. His quotes endure because they connect economic behavior with belief, labor, poverty, flourishing, and the social conditions under which prosperity becomes humane.
Common Themes
Collected Quotes
The real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.
Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all 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.
How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others.
As it is the power of exchanging that gives occasion to the division of labour, so the extent of this division must always be limited by the extent of that power.
Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.
To feel much for others and little for ourselves constitutes the perfection of human nature.