Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Justice, on the contrary, is the main pillar that upholds the whole edifice.”
- Date
- 1759
Meaning of “Justice, on the contrary, is the main pillar…”
The social metaphor makes justice structurally essential: Smith argues that a community may survive limited generosity but not continual mutual injury.
Where does it come from?
The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part II, Section II, Chapter III; the sentence contrasts justice as society’s foundation with beneficence as its ornament.
