A wicked and worthless man of parts often goes through the world with much more credit than he deserves.
 Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). copy citation

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Author Adam Smith
Source The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Topic world
Date 1759
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_Moral_Sentiments

Context

“The latter are always viewed with hatred and aversion, as the follies, as well as the crimes, of the lowest and most worthless of mankind. The injustice of the former is certainly, at least, as great as that of the latter; but the folly and imprudence are not near so great. A wicked and worthless man of parts often goes through the world with much more credit than he deserves. A wicked and worthless fool appears always, of all mortals, the most hateful, as well as the most contemptible. As prudence combined with other virtues, constitutes the noblest; so imprudence combined with other vices, constitutes the vilest of all characters.” source