The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals. – 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
To feel much for others and little for ourselves to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature. – Adam Smith
To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers, but extremely fit for a nation that is governed by shopkeepers. – Adam Smith