Adam Smith Quotes


The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become.


Citations

Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Vol. 2, W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776, p. 364.

Related Quotes

Adam Smith
Adam Smith
  • Born: June 16, 1723
  • Died: July 17, 1790
  • Nationality: Scottish
  • Profession: Economist

Adam Smith FRSA was a Scottish economist, philosopher as well as a moral philosopher, a pioneer of political economy, and a key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment, also known as ''The Father of Economics'' or ''The Father of Capitalism''. Smith wrote two classic works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, often abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. In his work, Adam Smith introduced his theory of absolute advantage.