A Lottery Is a Taxation Upon All the Fools in Creation

William Petty? Henry Fielding? Adam Smith? Camillo Benso? James Wolcott? Marshall McLuhan? Roger Jones? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The winners of a recent lottery jackpot split more than one billion dollars. Yet the probability of a lucky lottery strike is smaller than an unlucky lightning strike. Economists, mathematicians, and wits have made sardonic remarks like …

As Soon as Government Management Begins It Upsets the Natural Equilibrium of Industrial Relations

Adam Smith? Everett Dean Martin? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Multiple books and websites attribute the following quotation to the influential economic thinker Adam Smith, but I think the ascription is incorrect: As soon as government management begins it upsets the natural equilibrium of industrial relations, and each interference only requires further bureaucratic control until the …