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
Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality.
Interpretation
The accumulation of wealth often leads to social disparities.
Adam Smith's quote suggests that significant wealth tends to create a divide within society, where the rich possess far more than the poor, resulting in inequality. This remark reflects on the economic structures that can perpetuate such imbalances, emphasizing the social implications of property ownership and wealth distribution.
In practice
In a discussion about wealth distribution during a seminar on economics.
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.
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.
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.
Fate's arrow, when expected, travels slow.
Who is there that can adequately gauge the greatness of the humility, gentleness, self-surrender, revealed by the Lord of majesty in assuming human nature, in accepting the punishment of death, the shame of the cross?
The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.
For nothing is more democratic than logic; it is no respecter of persons and makes no distinction between crooked and straight noses.
People, human beings with all their creative diversity, are the makers of history.
I agree today that a man has no business trying to tell women what their characteristics are, which ones are inborn, which are more admirable, which will be best utilized by what occupations.
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