"examine the records of history, recollect what has happened within the circle of your own experience, consider with attention what has been the conduct of almost all the greatly unfortunate, either in private or public life, whom you may have either read of, or heard of, or remember; and you will find that the misfortunes of by far the greater part of them have arisen from their not knowing when they were well, when it was proper for them to sit still and to be contented. the inscription upon the tomb-stone of the man who had endeavoured to mend a tolerable constitution by taking physic; 'i was well, i wished to be better; here i am' may generally be applied with great justness to the distress of disappointed avarice and ambition."

adam smith, the theory of moral sentiments

"let us suppose that the great empire of china, with all its myriads of inhabitants, was suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake, and let us consider how a man of humanity in europe, who had no sort of connexion with that part of the world, would be affected upon receiving intelligence of this dreadful calamity. he would, i imagine, first of all, express very strongly his sorrow for the misfortune of that unhappy people, he would make many melancholy reflections upon the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of all the labours of man, which could thus be annihilated in a moment. he would too, perhaps, if he was a man of speculation, enter into many reasonings concerning the effects which this disaster might produce upon the commerce of europe, and the trade and business of the world in general. and when all this fine philosophy was over, when all these humane sentiments had been once fairly expressed, he would pursue his business or his pleasure, take his repose or his diversion, with the same ease and tranquillity, as if no such accident had happened. the most frivolous disaster which could befal himself would occasion a more real disturbance. if he was to lose his little finger to-morrow, he would not sleep to-night; but, provided he never saw them, he will snore with the most profound security over the ruin of a hundred millions of his brethren, and the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less interesting to him, than this paltry misfortune of his own."

adam smith, the theory of moral sentiments

"the annual produce of the land and labour of england, for example, is certainly much greater than it was, a little more than a century ago, at the restoration of charles II. though, at present, few people, i believe, doubt of this, yet during this period, five years have seldom passed away in which some book or pamphlet has not been published, written, too, with such abilities as to gain some authority with the public, and pretending to demonstrate that the wealth of the nation was fast declining, that the country was depopulated, agriculture neglected, manufactures decaying, and trade undone. nor have these publications been all party pamphlets, the wretched offspring of falsehood and venality. many of them have been written by very candid and very intelligent people, who wrote nothing but what they believed, and for no other reason but because they believed it."

adam smith, an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations

"even the most fervent believer in free market economics does not believe that you can throw yourself off a cliff and depend on someone to sell you a parachute on the way down. on the other hand, you can usually go spend a year in a city where you have never been before, and therefore have no idea where to get food, without any danger of starving, because the market will be sure to supply you. no doubt, if enough free market enthusiasts leaped off the same cliff regularly, someone would open a parachute store nearby, because the market does adjust, though not instantaneously".

"regulatory agencies are often set up after some political crusaders have successfully launched investigations or publicity campaigns that convince the authorities to establish a permanent commission to oversee and control a monopoly or some group of firms few enough in number to be a threat to behave in collusion as if they were one monopoly. however, after a commission has been set up and its powers established, crusaders and the media tend to lose interest over the years and turn their attention to other things. meanwhile, the firms being regulated continue to take a keen interest in the activities of the commission and to lobby the government for favorable regulations and favorable appointments of individuals to these commissions.

the net result of these asymmetrical outside interests on these agencies is that commissions set up to keep a given firm or industry within bounds, for the benefit of the consumer, often metamorphose into agencies seeking to protect the existing regulated firms from threats arising from new firms with new technology or new organizational methods."

"politics and economics differ radically in the way they deal with time. for example, when it becomes clear that the fares being charged on municipal buses are too low to permit these buses to be replaced as they wear out, the logical economic conclusion for the long run is to raise the fares. politically, however, a politician who opposes the fare increase as "unjustified" may gain the votes of bus riders at the next election. moreover, since all the buses are not going to wear out immediately, the consequences of holding down the fare will not appear all at once but will be spread out over time. it may be some years before enough buses start breaking down and wearing out, without adequate replacements, for the bus riders to notice that there now seem to be longer waits between buses and they do not arrive on schedule as often as they used to.

by the time the municipal transit system gets so bad that many people begin moving out of the city, taking the taxes they pay with them, so many years may have elapsed since the political bus fare controversy that few people remember it or see any connection between that controversy and their current problems. meanwhile, the politician who won a municipal election by assuming the role of champion of the bus riders may now have moved on up to statewide office, or even national office, on the basis of his popularity. as a declining tax base causes deteriorating city services and neglected infrastructure, the erstwhile hero of the bus riders may even be able to boast that things were never this bad when he was a city official, and blame the current problems on the failings of his successors."

thomas sowell, basic economics