The Theory of Moral Sentiments

by Adam Smith

Justice, he argued, is useful; but utility itself is pleasing to the moral sense.

What at first disturbs us is not the object of the senses, but the idea of the imagination.

Hatred and anger are the greatest poison to the happiness of a good mind.

Humanity does not desire to be great, but to be beloved.

We miss something which we expected to find, and the habitual arrangement of our ideas is disturbed by the disappointment.

choose the best ship and the best pilot, and I wait for the fairest weather that my circumstances and duty will allow. Prudence and propriety, the principles which the Gods have given me for the direction of my conduct, require this of me; but they require no more: and if, notwithstanding, a storm arises, which neither the strength of the vessel nor the skill of the pilot are likely to withstand, I give myself no trouble about the consequence. All that I had to do is done already. The directors of my conduct never command me to be miserable, to be anxious, desponding, or afraid. Whether we are to be drowned, or to come to a harbour, is the business of Jupiter, not mine. I leave it entirely to his determination, nor ever break my rest with considering which way he is likely to decide it, but receive whatever comes with equal indifference and security.”

That whole account of human nature, however, which deduces all sentiments and affections from self-love, which has made so much noise in the world, but which, so far as I know, has never yet been fully and distinctly explained, seems to me to have arisen from some confused misapprehension of the system of sympathy.