The division of labour was limited by the extent of the market

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

Good roads, canals, and navigable rivers, by diminishing the expence of carriage, put the remote parts of the country more nearly upon a level with with those of the neighbourhood of the town. They are upon that the greatest of all improvements.

Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labor.

Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.

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

A merchant, it has been said very properly, is not necessarily the citizen of any particular country.