“ It is therefore the Division of Labour that increases the opulence of a country. This is the kernel of political economy, the inner keep round which this great architect of a new science has built a fortress strong enough to protect society and to preserve the fruit of men’s toil from the well-meaning unwisdom of their governments. Not that Smith was insensible to the hardness of economic laws, to the cruel inequalities of industry:—“In a civilised society,” he reminds his class, “though there is a division of labour, there is no equal division, for there are a good many who work none at all. ”
Francis W. Hirst
Summary
“Adam Smith”, is a work by Francis W. Hirst. It explores elements such as Smith, the Wealth of Nations and Hume.
Quotes from Adam Smith (Francis W. Hirst)
“ A very clever person, on reading the Wealth of Nations, complained that it seemed to be little more than a well arranged succession of truisms. Yet for the want of those truths mankind has stumbled along in the dark from the beginning. “The less you restrain trade, the more you will have.” A truism, if you like, but its denial has caused an infinitude of avoidable suffering. “If a man has learnt his lesson well, never mind about his university or his degree.” A truism, without doubt, but one that is constantly neglected and despised to the grave detriment of justice and learning. ”
“ The impartial spectator becomes more and more our ideal man, and we come to pay more homage to his still small voice than to the judgment of the world. The pangs of conscience are far more terrible than the condemnation of the market-place. Praiseworthiness comes to be better than praise; blameworthiness comes to be worse than blame. The true hell is the hell within the breast; the worst tortures are those that follow the sentence of the impartial spectator. One feature in the phenomena of sympathy, which Smith points out, perhaps constitutes a weak point in his theory. ”
