Date: 1761

"It is not the soft power of humanity, it is not that feeble spark of benevolence which Nature has lighted up in the human heart, that is thus capable of counteracting the strongest impluses of self-love."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1761

"It is a stronger power, a more forcible motive, which exerts itself upon such occasions. It is reason, principle, conscience, the inhabitant of the breast, the man within, the great judge and arbiter of our conduct."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1761

"Even in good men, the judge within is often in danger of being corrupted by the violence and injustice of their selfish passions, and is often induced to make a report very different from what the real circumstances of the case are capable of authorizing."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1761

"When I endeavour to examine my own conduct, when I endeavour to pass sentence upon it, and either to approve or condemn it, it is evident that, in all such cases, I divide myself, as it were, into two persons, and that I, the examiner and judge, represent a different character from that other I,...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1762

"It is accordingly observed by Longinus, in his treatise of the Sublime, that the proper time for metaphor, is when the passions are so swelled as to hurry on like a torrent."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1762

"The mind falls with a heavy body, descends with a river, and ascends with flame and smoke."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1762

"This vibration of the mind in passing and repassing betwixt things that are related, explains the facts above mentioned."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1762

"The same object makes not always the same impression; because the mind, being of a limited capacity, cannot, at the same instant, give great attention to a plurality of objects."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1762

"In the same manner, good news arriving to a man labouring under distress, occasions a vibration in his mind from the one to the other."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1762

"This is verified by experience; from which we learn, that different passions having the same end in view, impel the mind to action with united force. The mind receives not impulses alternately from these passions, but one strong impulse from the whole in conjunction."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)