Resentment seems to have been given us by nature for a defense, and for a defense only! It is the safeguard of justice and the security of innocence.
Adam SmithRead
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 interest.
Interpretation
Self-interest drives economic activity and supply.
This quote by Adam Smith highlights the fundamental principle of economics that individuals and businesses act based on their self-interest. Rather than relying on the goodwill of others, such as butchers, brewers, and bakers, we benefit from their pursuit of profit, which in turn provides for our needs, demonstrating the interconnectedness of economic roles in society.
In practice
In a speech about market dynamics, you can mention, 'As Adam Smith stated, our access to goods comes from the self-interest of producers.'
Resentment seems to have been given us by nature for a defense, and for a defense only! It is the safeguard of justice and the security of innocence.
Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality.
This is one of those cases in which the imagination is baffled by the facts.
The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.
Defense is superior to opulence.
I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.
For it is an essential difference between capitalist and socialist production that under capitalism men provide for themselves, while under Socialism they are provided for.
A nation's economy is more than its markets, tastes, technologies and property rights.
Markets are designed to allow individuals to look after their private needs and to pursue profit. It's really a great invention, and I wouldn't underestimate the value of that. But they're not designed to take care of social needs.
The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.
It is a [disputed] question, whether the circulation of paper, rather than of specie [gold and silver coin], is a good or an evil I believe it to be one of those cases where mercantile clamor will bear down reason, until it is corrected by ruin.
It's one thing to recognize that the gap between the rich and everybody else is growing like a cancer; it's another thing to come up with useful solutions.
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