- Lived:
- 1723–1790 · Kirkcaldy, Glasgow, Edinburgh — with a decisive detour through France
- Tradition:
- Scottish Enlightenment; moral philosophy — and the founding of modern economics
- The Big Idea:
- We are mirrors to one another. The same creature who judges itself through an imagined fair spectator also trucks, barters, and exchanges — sympathy and self-interest are not rival theories of humanity but one anthropology, and Smith wrote one book about each half.
- In their words:
- "Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely."
- If you remember one thing:
- The man the world turned into a mascot for selfishness wrote his first and favorite book about sympathy — and the "invisible hand" appears exactly once in each book he published.