I Have No Faith In Political Arithmetic.

Wherever There Is Great Property There Is Great Inequality. For One Very Rich Man There Must Be At Least Five Hundred Poor, And The Affluence Of The Few Supposes The Indigence Of The Many. The Affluence Of The Rich Excites The Indignation Of The Poor, Who Are Often Both Driven By Want, And Prompted By Envy, To Invade His Possessions.

It Must Always Be Remembered, However, That It Is The Luxuries, And Not The Necessary Expense Of The Inferior Ranks Of People, That Ought Ever To Be Taxed.

That A Joint Stock Company Should Be Able To Carry On Successfully Any Branch Of Foreign Trade, When Private Adventurers Can Come Into Any Sort Of Open And Fair Competition With Them, Seems Contrary To All Experience.

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 Exercise His Invention In Finding Out Expedients For Removing Difficulties Which Never Occur. He Naturally Loses, Therefore, The Habit Of Such Exertion, And Generally Becomes As Stupid And Ignorant As It Is Possible For A Human Creature To Become.

Virtue Is More To Be Feared Than Vice, Because Its Excesses Are Not Subject To The Regulation Of Conscience.