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4d558be
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The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Avarice over-rates the difference between poverty and riches: ambition, that between a private and a public station: vain-glory, that between obscurity and extensive reputation. The person under the influence of any of those extravagant passions, is not only miserable in his actual situ..
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happiness
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Adam Smith |
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01aa6b5
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Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.
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superstition
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Adam Smith |
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544944f
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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.
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Adam Smith |
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832bec8
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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 self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages
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Adam Smith |
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615d509
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Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself.
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Adam Smith |
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7810d9c
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The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become...
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stupidity
work
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Adam Smith |
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d326e2f
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In regards to the price of commodities, the rise of wages operates as simple interest does, the rise of profit operates like compound interest. Our merchants and masters complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price and lessening the sale of goods. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other ..
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money
labor
class-warfare
profit
economics
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Adam Smith |
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4ef4f6d
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People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.
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government
finance
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Adam Smith |
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7e318cf
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Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions.
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Adam Smith |
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ac2b44d
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Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality.
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Adam Smith |
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ac9e20c
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Hatred and anger are the greatest poison to the happiness of a good mind.
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Adam Smith |
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1abf542
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Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.
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Adam Smith |
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706bd43
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Secrets in manufactures are capable of being longer kept than secrets in trade.
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Adam Smith |
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265a869
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The world neither ever saw, nor ever will see, a perfectly fair lottery.
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Adam Smith |
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f3834c7
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the competition of the poor takes away from the reward of the rich.
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Adam Smith |
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ddf3e98
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China is a much richer country than any part of Europe.
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Adam Smith |
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4eb5607
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Corn is a necessary, silver is only a superfluity.
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Adam Smith |
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565a629
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It seldom happens, however, that a great proprietor is a great improver.
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Adam Smith |
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c0a7439
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The great affair, we always find, is to get money.
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Adam Smith |
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5b95ff2
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Upstart greatness is everywhere less respected than ancient greatness.
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Adam Smith |
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3025b86
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Nothing but the most exemplary morals can give dignity to a man of small fortune.
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Adam Smith |
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685a984
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II. The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain, and not arbitrary.
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Adam Smith |