Letter to William Pitt (24 October 1800), quoted in Earl Stanhope, Life of The Right Honourable William Pitt, Volume III (1862), p. 248
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We in truth formed our opinions on the subject together, and I was not more convinced than you were of the soundness of Adam Smith's principles of political economy till Lord Liverpool lured you from our arms into all the mazes of the old system. I am confident that provisions, like every other article of commerce, if left to themselves, will and must find their level; and that every attempt to disturb that level by artificial contrivances has a necessary tendency to increase the evil it seeks to remedy.

— William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "We in truth formed our opinions on the subject together, and I was not more convinced than you were of the soundness of Adam Smith's principles of political economy till Lord Liverpool lured you from our arms into all the mazes of the old system. I am confident that provisions, like every other article of commerce, if left to themselves, will and must find their level; and that every attempt to disturb that level by artificial contrivances has a necessary tendency to increase the evil it seeks to remedy." in the context of "Letter to William Pitt (24 October 1800), quoted in Earl Stanhope, Life of The Right Honourable William Pitt, Volume III (1862), p. 248" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville" (Quotes, 1800s) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Adam Smith

About Adam Smith

Adam Smith (16 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish-born economist and philosopher, widely considered the "father of modern economics".