The education of the common people requires, perhaps, in a civilized and commercial society, the attention of the public more than that of people of … - Adam Smith

I have no great faith in political arithmetic, and I mean not to warrant the exactness of either of these computations.

No fixed capital can yield any revenue but by means of a circulating capital.

The establishment of any new manufacture, of any new branch of commerce, or any new practice in agriculture, is always a speculation, from which the projector promises himself extraordinary profits. These profits sometimes are very great, and sometimes, more frequently, perhaps, they are quite otherwise; but in general they bear no regular proportion to those of other older trades in the neighbourhood. If the project succeeds, they are commonly at first very high. When the trade or practice becomes thoroughly established and well known, the competition reduces them to the level of other trades.