Date: 1790

"In proportion to the degree of the self-command which is necessary in order to conquer our natural sensibility, the pleasure and pride of the conquest are so much the greater; and this pleasure and pride are so great that no man can be altogether unhappy who completely enjoys them."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"In what cases friendship ought to yield to gratitude, or gratitude to friendship. in what cases the strongest of all natural affections ought to yield to a regard for the safety of those superiors upon whose safety often depends that of the whole society; and in what cases natural affection may,...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"The command of the less violent and turbulent passions seems much less liable to be abused to any pernicious purpose."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"The man who feels the full distress of the calamity which has befallen him, who feels the whole baseness of the injustice which has been done to him, but who feels still more strongly what the dignity of his own character requires; who does not abandon himself to the guidance of the undiscipline...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"When the sense of propriety, when the authority of the judge within the breast, can control this extreme sensibility, that authority must no doubt appear very noble and very great."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"It is the slow, gradual, and progressive work of the great demigod within the breast, the great judge and arbiter of conduct."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"Regard to the sentiments of other people, however, comes afterwards both to enforce and to direct the practice of all those virtues; and no man during, either the whole of his life, or that of any considerable part of it, ever trod steadily and uniformly in the paths of prudence, of justice, or ...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1791

"In short, it must not be concealed, that like many other good and pious men, amongst whom we may place the Apostle Paul, upon his own authority, Johnson was not free from propensities which were ever 'warring against the law of his mind,'--and that in his combats with them, he was sometimes over...

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)