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

The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.

We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations [that is, unions or colluding organizations] of masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labor above their actual price.

It is unjust that the whole of society should contribute towards an expence of which the benefit is confined to a part of the society.

To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.

The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer.

As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.