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

"All the splendour of the highest prosperity can never enlighten the gloom with which so dreadful an idea must necessarily over-shadow the imagination; nor, in a wise and virtuous man, can all the sorrow of the most afflicting adversity ever dry up the joy which necessarily springs from the habit...

— 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

"But the contest between the two principles, the warfare within the breast, may be too violent to be at all consistent with internal tranquillity and happiness."

— 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

"Without the restraint which this principle imposes, every passion would, upon most occasions, rush headlong, if I may say so, to its own gratification."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)