The Theory of Moral Sentiments

by Adam Smith

He laments that he was hindered from performing an action which would have added a new lustre to his character in his own eyes,

But a plan does not, even to the most intelligent, give the same pleasure as a noble and magnificent building. They may discover as much both of taste and genius in the one as in the other.

The superiority of virtues and talents has not, even upon those who acknowledge that superiority, the same effect with the superiority of atchievements.

As the merit of an unsuccessful attempt to do good seems thus, in the eyes of ungrateful mankind,

to be diminished by the miscarriage, so does likewise the demerit of an unsucces...

In the punishment of treason, the sovereign resents the injuries which are immediately done to himself: in the punishment of other crimes, he resents those which are done to other men.

Treason is the direct insurrectionist posture to depose all of civil society that leads to direct challenging of authority of sovereign government no matter how just the cause. This is why it is so severely punished.

The resentment of mankind, however, runs so high against this crime, their terror for the man who shows himself capable of committing it, is so great, that the mere attempt to commit it ought in all countries to be capital.

He can never think of it without returning thanks to Heaven for having been thus graciously pleased to save him from the guilt in which he was just ready to plunge himself,

For a moment

we look upon them both as the authors, the one of our good, the other of our bad fortune, and regard them in some measure as if they had really brought about the events which they only give an account

of.

The first author of our sorrow is, on the contrary, just as naturally the object of a transitory resentment.

It is because any sort of reason seems sufficient to authorize the exertion of the social and benevolent affections.

we generally enter so far into the resentment of the sufferer, as to approve of his inflicting a punishment upon the offender much beyond what the offence would have appeared to deserve,

The person who has been guilty of it, shows an insolent contempt of the happiness and safety of others.

a man to the scaffold merely for having thrown a stone carelessly into the street

without hurting any body.

The folly and inhumanity of his conduct, however, would in this case be the same; but still our senti...

but should have regarded his refusing it as the effect of timid weakness, and of an anxiety about merely possible events, which it is to no purpose to be aware of.

as the event does not depend on the agent, it ought to have no influence upon our sentiments, with regard to the merit or propriety of his conduct.

if the malevolence of the affection, were alone the causes which excited our resentment, we should feel all the furies of that passion against any person in whose breast we suspected or believed such designs or affections were harboured,

Bad wishes, bad views, bad designs, might still

be suspected; and while these excited the same indignation with bad conduct, while bad intentions were as much resented as bad actions, they would equally expose the person to punishment and resentment.

But every part of nature, when attentively surveyed, equally demonstrates the providential care of its Author, and we may admire the wisdom and goodness of God even in the weakness and folly of man.

The meticulous detail of God's design for our sense of right and wrong reveals His awareness of the nuances of free will. It showcases His goodness.

of the beauty or deformity of his own mind,

than of the beauty or deformity of his own face.

to which he is provided with no mirror which can present them to his view.

Human society is a mirror that reveals the beauty or ugliness of man's soul.

A man who is tolerably handsome, will allow you to laugh at any little irregularity in his person;

Attractive people can make jokes at their own expense. Unattractive people cannot because they are not satisfied with their own appearance.

but all such jokes are commonly unsupportable to one who is really deformed.

Virtue

is

ami...

but because it excites those sentiments in other men.

Virtue has an inherently external locus of genesis. It derives its merits from the assessment of others.

The man who applauds us either for actions which we did not perform, or for motives which had no sort of influence upon our conduct,

To us they should be more mortifying than any censure,

it. Men have voluntarily thrown away life to acquire after death a renown which they could no longer enjoy.

Racine was so disgusted by the indifferent success of his Phaedra, the finest tragedy, perhaps, that is extant in any language, that, though in the vigour of his life, and at the height of his abilities, he resolved to write no more for the stage.

The Greek Tragedy of Phaedra and Racine

Gray

said to have been so much hurt, by a foolish and impertinent parody of two of his finest odes, that he never afterwards attempted any considerable work.

Mathematicians,

on the contrary, who may have the most perfect assurance, both of the truth and of the importance of their discoveries, are frequently very indifferent about the reception which they may meet with from the public.

Mathematicians and natural philosophers, from their independency upon the public opinion, have little temptation to form themselves into factions and cabals,

Science and mathematics are inherently collaborative. They are not naturally tribalistic.

They are almost always men of the most amiable simplicity of manners, who live in good harmony with one another, are the friends of one another's reputation,

Good scientists support one another.

When a man has

bribed all the judges, the most unanimous decision of the court, though it may gain him his law-suit, cannot give him any assurance that he was in the right:

he will most carefully endeavour so to regulate his conduct as to avoid, not only blame-worthiness, but, as much as possible, every probable imputation of blame. He will never, indeed, avoid blame

A wise man seeks to protect his integrity above all else.

'despise glory, who are yet most severely mortified by unjust reproach;

This inconsistency, however, seems to be founded in the unalterable principles of human nature.

the only effectual consolation of humbled and afflicted man lies in an appeal to a still higher tribunal,

the all-seeing Judge of the world,