| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 54299 |
| QUOTATION: | Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the publick interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it.... He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Adam Smith (1723–1790), Scottish political economist. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk. IV, ch. II (1776). |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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