Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo

The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...

ourselves to some pain that was more to be avoided than this pleasure was to be desired. Pain, in the same manner, might appear sometimes to be eligible; not, however, be|cause it was pain, but because by enduring it we might either avoid a still greater pain, or acquire some pleasure of much more impor|tance. That bodily pain and pleasure, there|fore, were always the natural objects of de|sire and aversion, was, he thought, abun|dantly evident. Nor was it less so, he ima|gined, that they were the sole ultimate ob|jects of those passions. Whatever else was either desired or avoided was so, according to him, upon account of its tendency to pro|duce one or other of those sensations. The tendency to procure pleasure rendered power and riches desireable, as the contrary ten|dency to produce pain made poverty and in|significancy the objects of aversion. Honour and reputation were valued, because the es|teem and love of those we live with were of the greatest consequence both to procure plea|sure and to defend us from pain. Ignominy and bad fame, on the contrary, were to be avoided, because the hatred, contempt and resentment of those we live with destroyed
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Title
The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...
Author
Smith, Adam, 1723-1790.
Canvas
Page 442
Publication
London :: printed for A. Millar; and A. Kincaid and J. Bell, in Edinburgh,
1759.

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"The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ..." In the digital collection Eighteenth Century Collection Online Demo. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eccodemo/k111361.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 12, 2025.
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