Adam Smith

The poor, in order to obtain the means of subsistence, are obliged to undergo the drudgery and hardships of the meanest employments, and to expose themselves to the greatest dangers, in order to gain a scanty and precarious livelihood.

The prudent man is always concerned with his own interest, but he is not always selfish. He is often benevolent, and he is always just.

The greatest and most important of all human pursuits is the pursuit of happiness.

The desire of food is limited in every man by the narrow capacity of the human stomach; but the desire of the conveniences and ornaments of building, dress, equipage, and household furniture, seems to have no limit or certain boundary.

The progress of opulence, therefore, naturally produces a greater rise in the real price of labour than in that of the rude produce of land.

Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of the society, which he has in view. But the study of his own advantage naturally, or rather necessarily leads him to prefer that employment which is most advantageous to the society.