The Theory of Moral Sentiments

by Adam Smith

a direct sympathy with the sentiments of the agent,

indirect sympathy with the gratitude of those who receive the benefit of his actions.

In imagination we become the very person whose actions are represented to us:

we transport ourselves in fancy to the scenes of those distant and forgotten adventures, and imagine ourselves acting the part of a Scipio or a Camillus, a Timoleon or an Aristides.

a direct antipathy to the sentiments of the agent, and an indirect sympathy with the resentment of the sufferer.

When we bring home to ourselves the situation of the persons whom those scourges of mankind insulted, murdered, or betrayed, what indignation do we not feel against such insolent and inhuman oppressors of the earth?

Gratitude and resentment,

in every respect, it is evident, counterparts to one another;

we cannot avoid conceiving a considerable degree of esteem and admiration for one who appears capable of exerting so much self-command over one of the most ungovernable passions of his nature.

is excessive a hundred times for once that it is moderate, we are very apt to consider it as altogether odious and detestable,

Thus self-preservation, and the propagation of the species, are the great ends which Nature seems to have proposed in the formation of all animals.

with a love of life, and a dread of dissolution; with a desire of the continuance and perpetuity of the species,

Nature has directed us to the greater part of these by original and immediate instincts.

Hunger, thirst, the passion which unites the two sexes, the love of pleasure, and the dread of pain, prompt us to apply those means for their own sakes,

beneficent ends which the great Director of nature intended ...

Beneficence is always free, it cannot be extorted by force, the mere want of it exposes to no punishment; because the mere want of beneficence tends to do no real positive evil.

The man who does not recompense his benefactor when he has it in his power, and when his benefactor needs his assistance, is, no doubt, guilty of the blackest ingratitude.

When one man attacks, or robs, or attempts to murder another, all the neighbours take the alarm, and think that they do right when they run, either to revenge the person who has been injured, or to defend him who is in danger of being so.

The sufferer can only complain, and the spectator can intermeddle no other way than by advice and persuasion.

The civil magistrate is entrusted with the power not only of preserving the public peace by restraining injustice,

but of promoting the prosperity of the commonwealth,

by establishing good d...

and by discouraging every sort of vice an...

The digestion of the food, the circulation of the blood, and the secretion of the several juices which are drawn from it, are operations all of them necessary for the great purposes of animal life.

the blood circulates, or that the food digests of its own accord, and with a view or intention

The wheels of the watch are all admirably adjusted to the end for which it was made, the pointing of the hour.

Yet we never ascribe any such desire or intention to them, but to the watch-maker, and we know that they are put into motion by a spring, which intends the effect it produces as little as they do.

Ascribing intent or desire on an object that was made by another agent would be a false personification

The orderly and flourishing state of society is agreeable to him, and he takes delight in contemplating it.

Its disorder and confusion, on the contrary, is the object of his aversion, and he is chagrined at whatever tends to produce it.

we demand the punishment of the wrong that has been done to him, not so much from a concern for the general interest of society,

This likely why vigilantism is so attractive to some people. It is specifically designed to avenge the wrong perpetrated against the singular individual.

Tartarus as well as an Elysium; a place provided for the punishment of the wicked, as well as one for the reward of the just.

to the intention or affection of the heart,

to the external action or movement of the body,

to the good or bad con...

when we consider it after this manner, in abstract, yet when we come to particular cases,

the actual consequences which happen to proceed from any action, have a very great effect upon our sentiments concerning its merit or demerit,

and almost always either enhance or diminish ou...

Scarce, in any one instance, perhaps, will our sentiments be found, after examination, to be enti...

They are excited by inanimated, as well as by animated objects.

When the mischief, however, is very great, the object which caused it becomes disagreeable to us ever after, and we take pleasure to burn or destroy it.

This might be an explanation for why people who experience the loss of a family member to drunk drivers, often refuse to ever consume alcohol or another substance again.

We should treat, in this manner, the instrument which had accidentally been the cause of the death of a friend, and we should often think ourselves guilty of a sort of inhumanity, if we neglected to vent this absurd sort of vengeance upon it.

We should expect that he would rather preserve it with care and affection, as a monument that was, in some measure, dear to him.

Likely the psychological background for why we (humans) hold onto a sentimental items as a sort of lucky charm.

The Dryads and the Lares of the ancients, a sort of genii of trees and houses, were probably first suggested by this sort of affection,

Mythological characters may arise as metaphors or fixtures of our own minds. They represent the emotions/thoughts of our brain.

If they have been the causes of the death of any person, neither the public, nor the relations of the slain, can be satisfied, unless they are put to death in their turn:

nor is this merely for the security of the living, but, in some measure, to revenge the injury of the dead.

The man who solicits an office for another, without obtaining it, is regarded as his friend,

But the man who not only solicits, but procures it, is more peculiarly considered as his patron and benefactor, and is entitled to his respect and gratitude.

Nay, so unjust are mankind in this respect, that though the intended benefit should be procured, yet if it is not procured

by the means of a particular benefactor, they are apt to think that less gratitude is due to the man, who with the best intentions in the world could do no more than help it a little forward.

The general who has been hindered by the envy of ministers from gaining some great advantage over the enemies of his country,