There is no art which government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.
Adam SmithAll registers which, it is acknowledged, ought to be kept secret, ought certainly never to exist.
Adam SmithThe 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.
Adam SmithThat this is the source of our fellow-feeling for the misery of others, that it is by changing places in fancy with the sufferer, that we come either to conceive or to be affected by what he feels, may be demonstrated by many obvious observations, if it should not be thought sufficiently evident of itself. When we see a stroke aimed and just ready to fall upon the leg or arm of another person, we naturally shrink and draw back our own leg or our own arm; and when it does fall, we feel it in some measure, and are hurt by it as well as the sufferer.
Adam Smith