“We talk of the debt of gratitude, not of charity, or generosity, nor even of friendship.” — Adam Smith, “Of Justice and Beneficence,” The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Tag: Adam Smith
Quote of the Day
“Men of retirement and speculation, who are apt to sit brooding at home over either grief or resentment, though they may often have more humanity, more generosity, and a nicer sense of honour, yet seldom possess that equality of temper which is so common among men of the world.” — Adam Smith, “Of the Manner in which we judge of the Propriety or Impropriety of the Affections of other Men, by their Concord or Dissonance with our own – cont’d,” The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Quote of the Day
“We are not half so anxious that our friends should adopt our friendships, as that they should enter into our resentments. We can forgive them though they seem to be little affected with the favours which we may have received, but lose all patience if they seem indifferent about the injuries which may have been done to us.” — Adam Smith, “Of the Pleasure of Mutual Sympathy,” The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Quote of the Day
“Of all the calamities to which the condition of mortality exposes mankind, the loss of reason appears, to those who have the least spark of humanity, by far the most dreadful, and they behold that last stage of human wretchedness, with deeper commiseration than any other. But the poor wretch, who is in it, laughs and sings perhaps, and is altogether insensible of his own misery.” — Adam Smith, “Of Sympathy,” The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Quote of the Day
“We sometimes feel for another, a passion of which he himself seems to be altogether incapable; because, when we put ourselves in his case, that passion arises in our breast from the imagination, though it does not in his from the reality. We blush for the impudence and rudeness of another, though he himself appears to have no sense of the impropriety of his own behaviour; because we cannot help feeling with what confusion we ourselves should be covered, had we behaved in so absurd a manner.” — Adam Smith, “Of Sympathy,” The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Quote of the Day
“General lamentations, which express nothing but the anguish of the sufferer, create rather a curiosity to inquire into his situation, along with some disposition to sympathize with him, than any actual sympathy that is very sensible. The first question which we ask is, What has befallen you? Till this be answered, though we are uneasy both from the vague idea of his misfortune, and still more from torturing ourselves with conjectures about what it may be.” — Adam Smith, “Of Sympathy,” The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Quote of the Day
“The furious behaviour of an angry man is more likely to exasperate us against himself than against his enemies.” — Adam Smith, “Of Sympathy,” The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Quote of the Day
“Persons of delicate fibres and a weak constitution of body complain, that in looking on the sores and ulcers which are exposed by beggars in the streets, they are apt to feel an itching or uneasy sensation in the corresponding part of their own bodies. The horror which they conceive at the misery of those wretches affects that particular part in themselves more than any other; because that horror arises from conceiving what they themselves would suffer, if they really were the wretches whom they are looking upon.” — Adam Smith, “Of Sympathy,” The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Quote of the Day
“Nothing pleases us more than to observe in other men a fellow-feeling with all the emotions of our own breast; nor are we ever so much shocked as by the appearance of the contrary.” — Adam Smith, “Of the Pleasure of Mutual Sympathy,” The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Quote of the Day
“That we often derive sorrow from the sorrow of others, is a matter of fact too obvious to require any instances to prove it; for this sentiment, like all the other original passions of human nature, is by no means confined to the virtuous and humane.” — Adam Smith, “Of Sympathy,” The Theory of Moral Sentiments