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.

Secrets in manufactures are capable of being longer kept than secrets in trade.

The education of the common people requires, perhaps, in a civilized and commercial society, the attention of the public more than that of people of some rank and fortune.

The emotions of the spectator will still be very apt to fall short of the violence of what is felt by the sufferer. Mankind, though naturally sympathetic, never conceive, for what has befallen another, that degree of passion which naturally animates the person principally concerned.

It is the interest of every man to live as much at his ease as he can; and if his emoluments are to be precisely the same, whether he does or does not perform some very laborious duty, it is certainly his interest, at least as interest is vulgarly understood, either to neglect it altogether, or, if he is subject to some authority which will not suffer him to do this, to perform it in as careless and slovenly a manner as that authority will permit.

What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.

No complaint... is more common than that of a scarcity of money.