“When I endeavour to examine my own conduct, when I endeavour to pass sentence upon it, and either to approve or condemn it, it is evident that, in all such cases, I divide myself, as it were, into two persons; and that I, the examiner and judge, represent a different character from that other I, the person whose conduct is examined into and judged of.”
Chap. I.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Part III
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Adam Smith 175
Scottish moral philosopher and political economist 1723–1790Related quotes
“I don't need my head examined, but where were you when I married my second husband. Sheesh.”
Source: Every Fifteen Minutes
History of My Life (trans. Trask 1967), 1997 reprint, vol. 11, chap. 4, p. 112
“Judge — A law student who marks his own examination-papers.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
Ex parte Bell Cox (1887), 57 L. J. (N. S.) Q. B. 103.
Diary (10 November 1724).
Autobiography (1873)
A comment recalled by János Plesch in János, the Story of a Doctor (1947), p. 207. Also quoted in Einstein: the Life and Times by Ronald W. Clark (1971), p. 118 http://books.google.com/books?id=6IKVA0lY6MAC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q&f=false.
1940s
Variant: "When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of imagination has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing absolute knowledge." From The Ultimate Quotable Einstein by Alice Calaprice (2010), p. 26 http://books.google.com/books?id=G_iziBAPXtEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA26#v=onepage&q&f=false. This book attributes it to Einstein and the Humanities (1979) by Dennis Ryan, p. 125, but Calaprice seems to have copied it wrong, since searching "inside the book" on this book's amazon page http://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Humanities-Contributions-Dennis-Ryan/dp/0313253803 using the word "gift" shows that p. 125 actually gives the same quote as in János, the Story of a Doctor.