No Society Can Surely Be Flourishing And

Now Many Such Things May Be Done Without Intitling The People To Rise In Arms. A Gross, Flagrant, And Palpable Abuse No Doubt Will Do It, As If They Should Be Required To Pay A Tax Equal To Half Or Third Of Their Substance.

The Importation Of Gold And Silver Is Not The Principal, Much Less The Sole Benefit Which A Nation Derives From Its Foreign Trade.

The Man Of System, On The Contrary, Is Apt To Be Very Wise In His Own Conceit; And Is Often So Enamoured With The Supposed Beauty Of His Own Ideal Plan Of Government, That He Cannot Suffer The Smallest Deviation From Any Part Of It... He Seems To Imagine That He Can Arrange The Different Members Of A Great Society With As Much Ease As The Hand Arranges The Different Pieces Upon A Chess-board. He Does Not Consider That...in The Great Chess-board Of Human Society, Every Single Piece Has A Principle Of Motion Of Its Own, Altogether Different From That Which The Legislature Might Choose To Impress Upon It.

It Is The Interest Of Every Man To Live As Much At His Ease As He Can; And If His Emoluments Are To Be Precisely The Same, Whether He Does Or Does Not Perform Some Very Laborious Duty, It Is Certainly His Interest, At Least As Interest Is Vulgarly Understood, Either To Neglect It Altogether, Or, If He Is Subject To Some Authority Which Will Not Suffer Him To Do This, To Perform It In As Careless And Slovenly A Manner As That Authority Will Permit.

The Uniform, Constant, And Uninterrupted Effort Of Every Man To Better His Condition . . . Is Frequently Powerful Enough To Maintain The Natural Progress Of Things Toward Improvement, In Spite Of The Extravagance Of Government, And Of The Greatest Errors Of Administration.