An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Books I–IIIwriting · 1776DirectVerified quotation — claim 01“This division of labour, from which so many advantages are derived, is not originally the effect of any human wisdom, which foresees and intends that general opulence to which it gives occasion. It is the necessary, though very slow and gradual, consequence of a certain propensity in human nature, which has in view no such extensive utility; the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another.” — Adam Smith
Sources supporting claim 01
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Books IV–Vwriting · 1776DirectVerified quotation — claim 01“The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects, too, are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding, or to exercise his invention, in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become.” — Adam Smith