Adam Smith immortalized in Edinburgh

Adam Smith

Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

First we get him on a £20 note, and now this. Huge congratulations to my friend Dr. Eamonn Butler - of the Adam Smith Institute - for spearheading the successful drive to have a statue of Smith erected in Edinburgh’s city center. The statue was unveiled yesterday on the Royal Mile by Vernon Smith, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize for economics. David Farrer has some good photos from the event up on Flickr.

Of course, I can’t resist offering up some of my favorite Smithisms.

Man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. (The Wealth of Nations, Book I Chapter 1)

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. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages. (The Wealth of Nations, Book I Chapter II)

It is the highest impertinence and presumption…in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense… They are themselves always, and without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society. Let them look well after their own expense, and they may safely trust private people with theirs. If their own extravagance does not ruin the state, that of their subjects never will. (The Wealth of Nations, Book II, Chapter III)

To expect, indeed, that the freedom of trade should ever be entirely restored in Great Britain, is as absurd as to expect that an Oceana or Utopia should ever be established in it. Not only the prejudices of the public, but what is much more unconquerable, the private interest of many individuals, irresistibly oppose it. (The Wealth of Nations, Book IV Chapter II)