People of the same trade seldom meet tog... by Adam Smith

Capitalism Economics The Wealth of Nations

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

- Adam Smith

Other quotes by Adam Smith

Country

It is not by augmenting the capital of the country, but by rendering a greater part of that capital active and productive than would otherwise be so, that the most judicious operations of banking can increase the industry of the country.

- Adam Smith

Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions.

- Adam Smith

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

- Adam Smith

Peace Rest Being

Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.

- Adam Smith

Detail Opinion

The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts, and persist in doing so, generation after generation, through all changes of opinion and detail, is the one that must rule all observation.

- Adam Smith

Virtue Humanity

Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man.

- Adam Smith

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