Accountability file

Record & events

• resignation: Smith resigned from his professorship in 1764 to take the tutoring position. (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]
• resignation: He subsequently attempted to return the fees he had collected from his students because he had resigned partway through the term, but his students refused. (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]
• statement: He is also said to have put bread and butter into a teapot, drunk the concoction, and declared it to be the worst cup of tea he had ever had. (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]
• statement: Smith is said to have acknowledged his looks at one point, saying, "I am a beau in nothing but my books." Smith rarely sat for portraits, so almost all depictions of him created during his lifetime were drawn from memory. (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]
• disposition: Neoclassical economists emphasise Smith's invisible hand, a concept mentioned in the middle of his work – Book IV, Chapter II – and classical economists believe that Smith stated his programme for promoting the "wealth of nations" in the… (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]
• statement: This last statement about "an invisible hand" has been interpreted in numerous ways. (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]
• statement: Those who regard that statement as Smith's central message also quote frequently Smith's dictum: 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 inte… (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]
• statement: (The Wealth of Nations, I.i.10) The neoclassical interest in Smith's statement about "an invisible hand" originates in the possibility of seeing it as a precursor of neoclassical economics and its concept of general equilibrium; Paul Sam… (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]
• statement: To emphasise this connection, Samuelson quotes Smith's "invisible hand" statement substituting "general interest" for "public interest". (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]
• disposition: Indeed, until the 1940s, no one knew how to prove, even to state properly, the kernel of truth in this proposition about perfectly competitive market." Conversely, classical economists see in Smith's first sentences his programme to pro… (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]
• disposition: The opening sentences of the "Wealth of Nations" summarise this policy: The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes ... (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]
• statement: Herbert Stein wrote that the people who "wear an Adam Smith necktie" do it to "make a statement of their devotion to the idea of free markets and limited government", and that this misrepresents Smith's ideas. (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]
• statement: In fact, The Wealth of Nations includes the following statement on the payment of taxes: The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abi… (as of 2026-07-18T01:49:16.410Z) — Wikipedia [cc-attribution]