United Kingdom
Adam Smith
said
The Union was a measure from which infinite Good has been derived to this country.
— Letter to William Strahan (4 April 1760), quoted in Adam Smith, The Correspondence of Adam Smith, eds. E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross (1987),
Adam Smith
Scottish moral philosopher and political economist (1723–1790)
- Fame90.9
- Momentum1.2
- Global rank#145
Source-basedStable
- Fame90.9
- Momentum1.2
- Global rank#145
- United Kingdom rank#16
- Academics rank#15
- Wikipedia91K
Lived 1723–1790, aged 67United Kingdom
Summary
Updated 2026-07-17
He wrote the book that made economics a discipline. The Wealth of Nations dismantled divine explanations for wealth and power, replaced them with markets and self-interest, and gave classical capitalism its intellectual scaffolding.
Biography
About
Born in Kirkcaldy and educated at Glasgow and Oxford — one of the few to hold a John Snell scholarship — Smith lectured at Edinburgh to early acclaim, then collaborated with David Hume during the Scottish Enlightenment. He took a professorship at Glasgow teaching moral philosophy, where he published The Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759. A tutoring post later took him across Europe to meet the era's leading minds. In 1776 he published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, a frontal challenge to mercantilism that laid out division of labor, absolute advantage, and the…
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In their own words
Sourced, dated quotes from Adam Smith
Adam Smith
saidundated
Every faculty in one man is the measure by which he judges of the like faculty in another.
— Section I, Chap. III.
Adam Smith
saidundated
Hatred and anger are the greatest poison to the happiness of a good mind.
— Section II, Chap. III.
Adam Smith
saidundated
The man who barely abstains from violating either the person, or the estate, or the reputation of his neighbours, has surely very little positive merit.
— Section II, Chap. I.
Adam Smith
saidundated
mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent
— Section II, Chap. III.
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Fame
Stable90.9
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
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Momentum1.2
Historical27.3
Now attention13.6
Source confidence65.0
Completeness75.0
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