"The desire of appearing to be wealthy, may be called the great motive to industry and frugality, and the great cause of the accumulation of capital."

"The third and last duty of the sovereign or commonwealth is that of erecting and maintaining those public institutions and those public works, which, though they may be in the highest degree advantage…"

"The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or at least to neglect, persons of poor and mean condition, though necessary both to establish and to maint…"

"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 exe…"

"The most opulent nations, indeed, generally excel all their neighbours in agriculture as well as in manufactures; but they are to be envied, not on account of their opulence, but on account of their f…"