His book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments was first published in 1759 by a much younger thirty-six year old Adam Smith. He wrote his more widely publicized work when he was fifty-three, seventeen years afterwards. These two books published in his lifetime marked two dates distant from each other. There were no spectacular "events" that had occurred in his life. No major landmarks formed in his career. If, therefore, the happiness of an individual is considered to vary inversely from what biographers and historians state, then Adam Smith may have not reached a mean contentment in human happiness. Political desires and greatness were altogether excluded from his beliefs of life; it was his doctrine that happiness was equal in every way, and that contentment alone was necessary to ensure it. "What," he asks, "can be added to the happiness of the man who is in health, who is out of debt, and has a clear conscience?" To this simple standard, he was assisted by governing factors to cause decay in his life. He was never constrained by exigency to seek a proficiency in abhorrent pursuits. In several passages of his Moral Sentiments, it will seem that Smith openly expressed his preference for the old Epicurean theory of life that in ease of body and peace of mind consists of happiness, the goal of all desire.

             This statement by Lord Bacon concerning Plato may appropriately apply to Smith, "The study of human nature in all its branches, more particularly of the political history of mankind, opened a boundless field to his curiosity and ambition; and while it afforded scope to all the various powers of his versatile and comprehensive genius, gratified his ruling passion, of contributing to the happiness and the improvement of society" (Stewart 1). To this study, Smith devoted nearly all his leisurely time. In latter years, retaining the knowledge he had gained allowed him to theorize on the subject matter with great compassion and to produce his first great work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments.