The Theory of Moral Sentiments

by Adam Smith

The violence of the party, refusing all palliatives,

You can't placate extremists or fanatics.

and when a robber or highwayman is brought to the scaffold,

though we perfectly approve of his punishment, we often cannot help regretting that a man who possessed such great and noble powers should have been capable of such mean enormities.

with that of a very moderate estimation of his own merit, and, at the same time, of a full sense of the merit of other people.

He has little conception of this ideal perfection, about which he has little employed his thoughts;

Boileau, the great French poet

that no great man was ever completely satisfied with his own works.

Though their characters are in general much less correct, and their merit much inferior to that of the man of real and modest virtue; yet their excessive presumption, founded upon their own excessive self-admiration, dazzles the multitude,

Magic and showmanship conceal arrogance. False confidence.

The frequent, and often wonderful, success of the most ignorant quacks and imposters, both civil and religious, sufficiently demonstrate how easily the multitude are imposed upon by the most extravagant and groundless pretensions.

The most self-aggrandizing fake guru can spellbind a crowd with his charisma and illusions.

Upon his death-bed, the most ungodlike of all situations, he requested of his friends that, to the respectable list of Deities, into which himself had long before been inserted, his old mother Olympia might likewise have the honour of being added.

Attila, a Gengis, or a Tamerlane.

To all such mighty conquerors the great mob of mankind are naturally disposed to look up with a wondering, though, no doubt, with a very weak and foolish admiration.

Man marvels at people who accomplish truly terrible or good things.

his vanity is delighted with viewing himself, not in the light in which you would view him if you knew all that he knows; but in that in which, he imagines, he has, by his own address, induced you actually to view him.

The proud man is commonly too well contented with himself to think that his character requires any amendment.

His self-sufficiency and absurd conceit of his own superiority, commonly attend him from his youth to his most advanced

Hamlet says, with all his sins upon his head, unano...

But the proud man is often vain;

the vain man is often proud.

prudence,

Without the restraint which this principle imposes, every passion would, upon most occasions, rush headlong,

First, wherein does virtue consist?

what is the tone of temper,

tenour of conduct, which constitutes the excellent ...

which is the natural object of esteem, honour, ...

what power or faculty in the mind is it, that this character, whatever it...

whether the virtuous character, whatever it consists in, be recommended to us by self-love,

when under proper government and direction;

must be confined to some one class

division o...

ungovernable ambition and resentment,

importunate solicitations of present ease and pleasure.

But though these two orders of passions are so apt to mislead us, they are still considered as nec...

the first having been given to defend us against injuries, to assert our rank a...

to provide for the support and necessities of the body.

when each of those three faculties of the mind confined itself to its proper office, without attempting to encroach upon that of any other; when reason directed and passion obeyed, and when each passion performed its proper duty, and exerted itself towards its proper object easily and without reluctance, and with that degree of force and energy,

we are said to

do justice to our neighbour when we abstain from doing him any positive harm,

we are said not to do justice to our neighbour unless we conceive for him all that love, respect, and esteem, which his character, his situation, and his connexion with ourselves, render suitable

that temper of mind which is the proper object of praise and approbation.

that it tended most to the prosperity and order of the whole, which was what we ourselves, if we were wise and equitable,

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.

me. I keep in mind always that the door is open, that I can walk out when I please, and retire to that hospitable house which is at all times open to all the world;

for beyond my undermost garment, beyond my body, no man living has any power over me.

The third account is, that, at seventy-two years of age, he died in the natural way; by far the most probable account of the three,

supported too by the authority

who must have had every o...

of being well informed; o...

The head of a party,

may do what he pleases; as long as he retains the confidence of his own friends,

The party leader can act with impunity as long as he remains popular.

a species of melancholy