On the road from the City of Skepticism, I had to pass through the Valley of Ambiguity.

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

Great ambition, the desire of real superiority, of leading and directing, seems to be altogether peculiar to man, and speech is the great instrument of ambition.

This is one of those cases in which the imagination is baffled by the facts.

I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.

Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another.

With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches.

Defense is superior to opulence.

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

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.

The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.

Adventure upon all the tickets in the lottery, and you lose for certain; and the greater the number of your tickets the nearer your approach to this certainty.

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.

As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.

Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse.

Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.

Poor David Hume is dying fast, but with more real cheerfulness and good humor and with more real resignation to the necessary course of things, than any whining Christian ever dyed with pretended resignation to the will of God.

On the road from the City of Skepticism, I had to pass through the Valley of Ambiguity.

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

The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.

All money is a matter of belief.

Labour was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased.

No complaint... is more common than that of a scarcity of money.

To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.

What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.

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.

Labor was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things.

Resentment seems to have been given us by nature for a defense, and for a defense only! It is the safeguard of justice and the security of innocence.

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.

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

Corn is a necessary silver is only a superfluity.

The mind is so rarely disturbed but that the company of friend will restore it to some degree of tranquility and sedateness.

But though empires like all the other works of men have all hitherto proved mortal yet every empire aims at immortality.

An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

Virtue is more to be feared than vice because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.

Never let people who are more unhappy than you tell you how to live your life.

Labor was the first price, the original purchase money that was paid for all things.

The world neither ever saw, nor ever will see, a perfectly fair lottery.

What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.

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 is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.

An instructed and intelligent people are always more decent and orderly than an ignorant and stupid one.

I look for ambiguity when I'm writing because life is ambiguous.

There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words.

People ask me if I left the lyrics open to ambiguity. Of course I did. I wanted to make a whole series of complex statements. The lyrics had to do with the state of society at the time.

During the Cold War, we lived in coded times when it wasn't easy and there were shades of grey and ambiguity.