The Theory of Moral Sentiments; Or, An Essay Towards an Analysis of the Principles by which Men Naturally Judge Concerning the Conduct and Character, First of Their Neighbors, and Afterwards of Themselves

Front Cover
Strahan, 1774 - Ethics - 476 pages

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Contents

I
1
IV
37
V
71
VI
109
VII
132
VIII
161
X
191
XII
263
XIII
291
XV
325
XVI
328
XVII
385
XIX
410

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Page 274 - They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life which would have been made had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants; and thus, without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society, and afford means to the multiplication of the species.
Page 434 - I shall in another discourse endeavour to give an account of the general principles of law and government and of the different revolutions they have undergone in the different ages and periods of society...
Page 229 - THE regard to those general rules of conduct is what is properly called a sense of duty, a principle of the greatest consequence in human life, and the only principle by which the bulk of mankind are capable of directing their actions.
Page 273 - ... all the different baubles and trinkets which are employed in the economy of greatness ; all of whom thus derive from his luxury and caprice that share of the necessaries of life which they would in vain have expected from his humanity or his justice.
Page 28 - As they are constantly considering what they themselves would feel if they actually were the sufferers, so he is constantly led to imagine in what manner he would be affected if he was only one of the spectators of his own situation.
Page 410 - The other are loose, vague, and indeterminate, and present us rather with a general idea of the perfection we ought to aim at, than afford us any certain and infallible directions for acquiring it.
Page 30 - ... the great, the awful, and respectable, the virtues of self-denial, of self-government, of that command of the passions which subjects all the movements of our nature to what our own dignity and honour, and the propriety of our own conduct, require, take their origin from the other.
Page 9 - It is miserable, we think, to be deprived of the light of the sun ; to be shut out from life and conversation ; to be laid in the cold grave, a prey to corruption and the reptiles of the earth ; to be no more thought of in this world, but to be obliterated in a little time, from the affections, and almost from .the memory, of their dearest friends and relations.
Page 160 - Some other intercession, some other sacrifice, some other atonement, he imagines must be made for him, beyond what he himself is capable of making, before the purity of the divine justice can be reconciled to his manifold offences. The doctrines of revelation coincide in every respect with...
Page 85 - The rich man glories in his riches, because he feels that they naturally draw upon him the attention of the world...

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