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. – Adam Smith
Labor was the first price, the original purchase-money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labor, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased. – Adam Smith
Labour was the first price, the original purchase – money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased. – Adam Smith
No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. – Adam Smith
I came here as a practical man, to talk, not simply on the question of peace and war, but to treat another question which is of hardly less importance – the enormous and burdensome standing armaments which it is the practice of modern Governments to sustain in time of peace. – Richard Cobden