Prompts

Use Adam Smith's famous quotation about benevolence to introduce to your class the concept of the merits of competition, the benefits of trade, and producer self-interest, the profit motive, and how these benefit consumers.

Self-interested behavior, according to Smith, encourages the virtue of prudence. This quotation can be used to launch a discussion into what constitutes prudence, whether self-interested behavior really does encourage it, and what personal prudence might do for society as a whole. 

Use this quote from The Theory of Moral Sentiments to start a discussion with your class about happiness, needs, wants, and gratitude.

Use the opening lines of Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments to prompt a conversation about what motivates our social behavior. 

Use this quotation from Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments to explore how people react to wealth and poverty with your students.

Use this quotation from Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments to discuss the different interest groups in society and how they interact.

Use this quotation from Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations to discuss property and inequality with your students.

Use this quotation from Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations to explore the nature of wealth.

Use this quotation from Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments to discuss the role of tranquility in finding happiness. 

Use this quotation from Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments to discuss the nature of vanity and whether it can ever be good.

Use this quotation from Adam Smith's essay on the "Imitative Arts" to discuss what makes art interesting.

Use this quotation from Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations to talk about whether people are born equal.

Use this quotation from Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments to talk about anger and happiness.