Smith believes that our desire for approval from those around us is embedded within us, and that our moral sense comes from experiencing approval and disapproval from others. As we experience those responses, we come to imagine an impartial spectator judging us.

Behaving with propriety is the ability to conform to the expectations of those around us, and they in turn conform to our expectations.

Smith uses the word loved to encompass not just romantic love. When he says we want to be loved, he means paid attention to, liked, respected, honored. We want to matter. We want people to notice us, to think highly of us.

Hayek thought that extending the norms of the family to society at large would put us on the road to tyranny.

is so much easier to live in a world where we can trust without having to spend too much time, money, and energy verifying the trust we place in others.

Those general rules can mute our self-interested passions and give our conscience a fighting chance against our self-love. We see people choosing a path of behavior, and we notice how that behavior is judged by others. If it is judged negatively, that encourages us to avoid it. If it is judged positively, we are encouraged to engage in that action

Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely.

The prudent man is genuine. He is modest about his skills and successes. A simpler way to capture Smith’s advice is “Say little, do much.”

When we earn the admiration of others honestly by being respectable, honorable, blameless, generous, and kind, the end result is true happiness.