Quotessence
Home / Books / The Theory of Moral Sentiments

The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Book by Adam Smith · 2 quotes · Disposition, Ethics, Happiness

Filter quotes by topic

The Theory of Moral Sentiments Quotes

“When I endeavour to examine my own conduct... I divide myself as it were into two persons; and that I, the examiner and judge, represent a different character from the other I, the person whose conduct is examine into and judged of. The first in the spectator... the second is the agent, a person who I properly call myself, and on whose conduct I was endeavouring to form some opinion.”

“The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Avarice over-rates the difference between poverty and riches: ambition, that between a private and a public station: vain-glory, that between obscurity and extensive reputation. The person under the influence of any of those extravagant passions, is not only miserable in his actual situation, but is often disposed to disturb the peace of society, in order to arrive at that which he so foolishly admires. The slightest observation, however, might satisfy him, that, in all the ordinary situations of human life, a well-disposed mind may be equally calm, equally cheerful, and equally contented. Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others: but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice; or to corrupt the future tranquillity of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice.”