… is from page 205 of Jerry Z. Muller’s 1993 book, Adam Smith In His Time and Ours:
Smith was remarkably prescient in identifying the promise of capitalism, and his work contributed in no small measure to the fulfillment of that promise. The difficulties and dangers to which Smith pointed remain with us. That he did not solve them may reflect the fact that they are incapable of resolution. But some insoluble problems are more benign than others, and it was Smith’s judgment that the problems posed by commercial society are preferable to the alternatives.