The uniform, constant, and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition . . . is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration.

Problems worthy of attacks, prove their worth by hitting back

The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it... He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that...in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it.

The difference between the most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street porter, for example, seems to arise not so much from nature, as from habit, custom, and education.

The property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable.

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 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.