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)

Date: 1790

"In the steadiness of his industry and frugality, in his steadily sacrificing the ease and enjoyment of the present moment for the probable expectation of the still greater ease and enjoyment of a more distant but more lasting period of time, the prudent man is always both supported and rewarded ...

— 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 traitor, on the contrary, who, in some peculiar situation, fancies he can promote his own little interest by betraying to the public enemy that of his native country. who, regardless of the judgment of the man within the breast, prefers himself, in this respect so shamefully and so basely, t...

— 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

"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: 1790

"In such cases, the passions, though restrained, are not always subdued, but often remain lurking in the breast with all their original fury."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"But, when we have neither been able to defend ourselves from it, nor have perished in that defence, no natural principle, no regard to the approbation of the supposed impartial spectator, to the judgment of the man within the breast, seems to call upon us to escape from it by destroying ourselves."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"The real or even the imaginary presence of the impartial spectator, the authority of the man within the breast, is always at hand to overawe them into the proper tone and temper of moderation."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)