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

The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.

There is no art which government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.

It is not for its own sake that men desire money, but for the sake of what they can purchase with it.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

I have no faith in political arithmetic.

To hinder, besides, the farmer from selling his goods at all times to the best market, is evidently to sacrifice the ordinary laws of justice to an idea of public utility, to a sort of reasons of state; an act of legislative authority which ought to be exercised only, which can be pardoned only in cases of the most urgent necessity.