Date: 1790

"But though the approbation of his own conscience can scarce, upon some extraordinary occasions, content the weakness of man; though the testimony of the supposed impartial spectator of the great inmate of the breast cannot always alone support him; yet the influence and authority of this princip...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"The man within immediately calls to us, that we value ourselves too much and other people too little, and that, by doing so, we render ourselves the proper object of the contempt and indignation of our brethren."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"The man within immediately calls to him, in this case too, that he is no better than his neighbour, and that by this unjust preference he renders himself the proper object of the contempt and indignation of mankind; as well as of the punishment which that contempt and indignation must naturally ...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"He has never dared to suffer the man within the breast to be absent one moment from his attention."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"With the eyes of this great inmate he has always been accustomed to regard whatever relates to himself."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"Misery and wretchedness can never enter the breast in which dwells complete self-satisfaction; and though it may be too much, perhaps, to say, with the Stoics, that, under such an accident as that above mentioned, the happiness of a wise man is in every respect equal to what it could have been u...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"He does not, in this case, perfectly identify himself with the ideal man within the breast, he does not become himself the impartial spectator of his own conduct."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"He soon identifies himself with the ideal man within the breast, he soon becomes himself the impartial spectator of his own situation."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"The man within the breast, the abstract and ideal spectator of our sentiments and conduct, requires often to be awakened and put in mind of his duty, by the presence of the real spectator: and it is always from that spectator, from whom we can expect the least sympathy and indulgence, that we ar...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"When he is at hand, when he is present, the violence and injustice of our own selfish passions are sometimes sufficient to induce the man within the breast to make a report very different from what the real circumstances of the case are capable of authorising."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)