The problem with fiat money is that it rewards the minority that can handle money, but fools the generation that has worked and saved money.

He is led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention

It appears, accordingly, from the experience of all ages and nations, I believe, that the work done by freemen comes cheaper in the end than that performed by slaves.

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.

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.

I am always willing to run some hazard of being tedious, in order to be sure that I am perspicuous; and, after taking the utmost pains that I can to be perspicuous, some obscurity may still appear to remain upon a subject, in its own nature extremely abstracted.

Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.