Adam Smith Quotes

For Athens alone of her contemporaries is found when tested to be greater than her reputation, and alone gives no occasion to her assailants to blush at the antagonist by whom they have been worsted, or to her subjects to question her title by merit to rule. Rather, the admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours.

It's not the money. It's not the fame. It's the influence.

I'm a King. Regardless of what I've been through and what I've done, I present myself as a King. And I get that respect from people, from everybody I deal with. I worked my whole life to establish that respect and make sure I get that respect.

Prestige is the shadow of money and power.

A seat in the council is honor without profit.

Politicians respect a lot of things, but nothing so much as success.

The influence of the leaders is due in very small measure to the arguments they employ, but in a large degree to their prestige. The best proof of this is that, should they by any circumstance lose their prestige, their influence disappears.

The past should have a vote but not a veto.

What want these outlaws conquerors should have but History's purchased page to call them great?

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable.

I had worked hard my entire career to establish myself as a leader. But I wasn't a leader until I was perceived as one.

If you want respect, you earn it in politics. You don't get it because you are some form of bloody emperor in a toga.

Owning news makes you important; it gives you a seat at the table.

Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.

The worth of a prize depends on the people who have received it before you.

Those who try to obliterate the past are injuring the present.

Great men always pay deference to greater.

I'd rather be called King than other things I've been called.

People change their opinion according to your position. And both politicians and bureaucrats begin to take you more seriously, as they suddenly feel you have become more important.

We do not accost a physician as we do any mere nobody; nor a magistrate as we do a private individual. We try to get some advantage from the skill of the one and the position of the other. Walk in the sun, and your shadow will follow you, whether you will or not.

I was overwhelmed by so many interviewers and then messages of congratulations. So many congratulation messages. I feel this shows the authority and the greatness of the Nobel Prize.

You know, if you think about it, the most powerful people on this earth probably never raise their voices - they just say it and people hop to, because they have that power.

Jewelry and pins have been worn throughout history as symbols of power, sending messages. Interestingly enough, it was mostly men who wore the jewelry in various times, and obviously crowns were part of signals that were being sent throughout history by people of rank.

It has happened to me to meet many of the men of my day whom the world agreed to call great.

I've become invested with this symbolic power. It really does transcend what I'm actually doing and what I actually deserve.