| Courage and ambition, when not regulated by benevolence, are fit only to make a tyrant and public robber. |
| It is the same case with judgment and capacity, and all the qualities of that kind. |
| They are indifferent in themselves to the interests of society, and have a tendency to the good or ill of mankind, according as they are directed by these other passions. |
| As Love is immediately agreeable to the person, who is actuated by it, and hatred immediately disagreeable; this may also be a considerable reason, why we praise all the passions that partake of the former, and blame all those that have any considerable share of the latter. |
| It is certain we are infinitely touched with a tender sentiment, as well as with a great one. |
| The tears naturally start in our eyes at the conception of it; nor can we forbear giving a loose to the same tenderness towards the person who exerts it. |
| All this seems to me a proof, that our approbation has, in those cases, an origin different from the prospect of utility and advantage, either to ourselves or others. |
| To which we may add, that men naturally, without reflection, approve of that character, which is most like their own. |
| The man of a mild disposition and tender affections, in forming a notion of the most perfect virtue, mixes in it more of benevolence and humanity, than the man of courage and enterprize, who naturally looks upon a certain elevation of mind as the most accomplished character. |
| This must evidently proceed from an immediate sympathy, which men have with characters similar to their own. |
| They enter with more warmth into such sentiments, and feel more sensibly the pleasure, which arises from them. |
| It is remarkable, that nothing touches a man of humanity more than any instance of extraordinary delicacy in love or friendship, where a person is attentive to the smallest concerns of his friend, and is willing to sacrifice to them the most considerable interest of his own. |
| Such delicacies have little influence on society; because they make us regard the greatest trifles: But they are the more engaging, the more minute the concern is, and are a proof of the highest merit in any one, who is capable of them. |
| The passions are so contagious, that they pass with the greatest facility from one person to another, and produce correspondent movements in all human breasts. |
| Where friendship appears in very signal instances, my heart catches the same passion, and is warmed by those warm sentiments, that display themselves before me. |
| Such agreeable movements must give me an affection to every one that excites them. |
| This is the case with every thing that is agreeable in any person. |
| The transition from pleasure to love is easy: But the transition must here be still more easy; since the agreeable sentiment, which is excited by sympathy, is love itself; and there is nothing required but to change the object. |
| Hence the peculiar merit of benevolence in all its shapes and appearances. |
| Hence even its weaknesses are virtuous and amiable; and a person, whose grief upon the loss of a friend were excessive, would be esteemed upon that account. |
| His tenderness bestows a merit, as it does a pleasure, on his melancholy. |