To feel much for others, and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfish, and exercise our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature.
—George Goodman
Topics: Benevolence
Man, an animal that makes bargains.
—George Goodman
Topics: Agreement
On the road from the City of Skepticism, I had to pass through the Valley of Ambiguity.
—George Goodman
Topics: Progress
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.
—George Goodman
Topics: Self-interest
Though the encouragement of exportation and the discouragement of importation are the two great engines by which the mercantile system proposes to enrich every country, yet with regard to some particular commodities it seems to follow an opposite plan: to discourage exportation and to encourage importation. Its ultimate object, however, it pretends, is always the same, to enrich the country by the advantageous balance of trade. It discourages the exportation of the materials of manufacture, and of the instruments of trade, in order to give our own workmen an advantage, and to enable them to undersell those of other nations in all foreign markets; and by restraining, in this manner, the exportation of a few commodities of no great price, it proposes to occasion a much greater and more valuable exportation of others. It encourages the importation of the materials of manufacture in order that our own people may be enabled to work them up more cheaply, and thereby prevent a greater and more valuable importation of the manufactured commodities.
—George Goodman
Resentment seems to have been given us by nature for defense, and for defense only; it is the safeguard of justice, and the security of innocence.
—George Goodman
Topics: Hate, Hatred
Those who live by numbers can also perish by them and it is a terrifying thing to have an adding machine write an epitaph, either way.
—George Goodman
Topics: Money
The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.
—George Goodman
Topics: Business
That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is most often unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages.
—George Goodman
Topics: Morals, Respect
Every man is, no doubt, by nature, first and principally recommended to his own care; and as he is fitter to take care of himself than of any other person, it is fit and right that it should be so.
—George Goodman
Topics: Welfare
Defense is superior to opulence.
—George Goodman
Topics: Defense
Labor was the first price, the original purchase-money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labor, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased.
—George Goodman
Man is an animal that makes bargains; no other animal does this—one dog does not change a bone with another.
—George Goodman
Topics: Man, Humankind, Humanity
The cheapness of wine seems to be a cause, not of drunkenness, but of sobriety. …People are seldom guilty of excess in what is their daily fare…On the contrary, in the countries which, either from excessive heat or cold, produce no grapes, and where wine consequently is dear and a rarity, drunkenness is a common vice.
—George Goodman
Topics: Wine
It is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense, either by statuary laws, or by prohibiting the importation of foreign luxuries. 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.
—George Goodman
Topics: Welfare
In civilized society man stands at all times in need of the cooperation and assistance of great multitudes, while his whole life is scarce sufficient to gain the friendship of a few persons… . 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. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and show them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest… . Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow citizens.
—George Goodman
Topics: Capitalism
The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.
—George Goodman
Topics: Aspirations
The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition is so powerful that it is alone, and without any assistance, capable not only of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting 100 impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations.
—George Goodman
Topics: Determination
Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man.
—George Goodman
Topics: Humanity, Humankind
The robot is going to lose. Not by much. But when the final score is tallied, flesh and blood is going to beat the damn monster.
—George Goodman
Topics: Computers
They are the most frivolous and superficial of mankind, who can be much delighted with that praise which they themselves know to be altogether unmerited.
—George Goodman
Topics: Praise
Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.
—George Goodman
Topics: Virtue
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.
—George Goodman
By pursuing his own interest [every individual] frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.
—George Goodman
Topics: Welfare
Vanity is the foundation of the most ridiculous and contemptible vices—the vices of affectation and common lying.
—George Goodman
Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.
—George Goodman
Topics: Scientists, Science
Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse.
—George Goodman
Topics: Perception
To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers, but extremely fit for a nation that is governed by shopkeepers.
—George Goodman
A gardener who cultivates his own garden with his own hands, unites in his own person the three different characters, of landlord, farmer, and labourer. His produce, therefore, should pay him the rent of the first, the profit of the second, and the wages of the third.
—George Goodman
Topics: Capitalism
All money is a matter of belief.
—George Goodman
Topics: Belief
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Paul Samuelson American Economist
- George P. Shultz American Diplomat
- Ludwig von Mises Austrian Economist
- Stuart Chase American Economist
- Edwin Feulner American Political Scientist
- Alan Greenspan American Economist
- Hesiod Greek Poet
- Marilyn vos Savant American Columnist
- William S. Burroughs American Novelist
- Benjamin Graham American Investor
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