Before we can feel much for others, we must in some measure be at ease ourselves. If our own misery pinches us very severely, we have no leisure to attend to that of our neighbour: and all savages are too much occupied with their own wants and necessities, to give much attention to those of another person.
(The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759)
Adam Smith
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Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent. The landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.
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