Tweet [1]
… is from Book IV, Chapter 5 [2] – on page 531, Vol. I, of the 1981 Liberty Fund edition [3] – of Adam Smith’s 1776 masterwork, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations [4]:
But the law ought always to trust people with the care of their own interest, as in their local situations they must generally be able to judge better of it than the legislator can do.