Adam Smith Quotes

“Smith's defence of the market, like Hume's defence of property systems in general, is primarily socially oriented. It is still a defence of the market: markets need not be opposed to broad community-focused social goals, as the idea of market-socialism makes clear. But it is a big mistake to see it as a right-wing defence of the importance to the individual of their own property. The defence of markets developed by Smith and Hume takes this nuanced view on which my property is justified primarily by what it can do for others. Getting this clear is an important step in our understanding of the contested value of markets.”
― Rowan Cruft, Adam Smith: The Kirkcaldy Papers

“There is a story that George Stigler, one of the leading lights of the Chicago School of economists, gave a seminar at the University of St Andrews on Adam Smith. His opening words, "Adam Smith is alive and well, and living in Chicago," invited the heckle, "And how is the prisoner?" Given that as well as being a formidable historian of economics, Stigler was also a fabulist, the story may have got better in the telling.

All the economists who have contributed to this volume have rejected the Chicago reading of Smith. Freeing Stigler's prisoner, they have shown that for Smith, it was impossible to separate economy and society. They have noted that where the Chicago reading emphasised his support for free enterprise and accepted the outcome of markets as being the best possible, Smith instead emphasised the importance of 'commercial society.”
― Robbie Mochrie, Adam Smith: The Kirkcaldy Papers

“Today, Adam Smith is famous as the father of capitalism and an advocate of a central tenet of free market thought: that greed is supposedly good and it drives markets. This was an idea pushed by neoliberal economists, inspired by Friedrich Hayeck and Milton Friedman, who had no knowledge of the history of moral philosophy, or of Scotland. What they missed is that no gentleman of his time could ever espouse greed, least of all a professor of moral philosophy. Indeed, Adam Smith recognized greed as an economic driver, and saw it as necessary, but also realized that it was a problem for society. His work was not an espousal of greed, but rather a response to it. His work was an attempt to find a way to reign in commercial greed to support the agrarian order, which he believed to be inherently more productive than business.”
― Jacob Soll, Adam Smith: The Kirkcaldy Papers

“...the idea that Smith can somehow be seen as representative of modern capitalism is a stretch. He was a man of his time, in the very particular society of oligarchic, 18th century Scotland. It was a world in which he thrived precisely by not fighting the status quo, but rather by making a proposal for harnessing greed, while keeping merchants in their social place and celebrating the ruling class of the time, and trying to envision a way in which it could play a part in a modernizing economy. In many ways, he got it right. While capitalism flourished in 18th century Scotland, the landed elite remained firmly in place and has managed to do so to this very day. In that aspect, Smith was quite visionary.”
― Jacob Soll, Adam Smith: The Kirkcaldy Papers

“Reading The Wealth of Nations as an attack against lobbying from special interest groups and cronyism suggests that for Smith the violence and inefficiencies of rent seeking mercantilist policies cause harm and are unjust.

For Smith, rent seeking and state capture by special interest groups is not only inefficient, but uses the (actual) "blood and treasure" of fellow citizens to enrich a few merchants under the false pretence of enriching the country. The Wealth of Nations can therefore be read as a moral condemnation of mercantilist policies: unjust policies are also inefficient policies.”
― Maria Pia Paganelli, Adam Smith: The Kirkcaldy Papers