Selfishness Quotes

Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.

The history of Rome presents various men of greater genius than Scipio Aemilianus, but none equalling him in moral purity, in the utter absence of political selfishness, in generous love of his country, and none, perhaps, to whom destiny has assigned a more tragic part.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness. Listen to it carefully.

We might not object to the statement that Lear deserved to suffer for his folly, selfishness and tyranny; but to assert that he deserved to suffer what he did suffer is to do violence not merely to language but to any healthy moral sense.

Economics is sometimes associated with the study and defense of selfishness and material inequality, but it has an egalitarian and civil libertarian core that should be celebrated.

The sin which is indulged to the greatest extent, which separates us from God and produces so many spiritual disorders, and which are contagious, is selfishness.

Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.

Let us reject violence and selfishness which could destroy our country’s unity.

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

Because racism is not like jealousy or selfishness, it is not a primal urge or a basic instinct, it is a 400-year-old political and economic system that has infected our institutions, our culture and even our thinking.

I think for anyone who follows the ‘artistic life,’ a certain amount of selfishness and self-involvement is part of the package. You’re probably already disregarding a certain material life you could have.

I think that in today‘s world, by nature, we are all self-centered. And that often leads to selfishness.

Selfishness, narcissism, being uncomfortable in your own skin, not feeling connected to the world around you, feeling dislocated from family and youth, having a strange relationship with your childhood – all those things feel really true to me.

Everything I had been taught to regard as a vice – and I still regard them as vices – under Thatcherism was in fact a virtue: Greed, selfishness, no care for the weaker, sharp elbows, sharp knees.

Our enemies are our evil deeds and their memories, our pride, our selfishness, our malice, our passions, which by conscience or by habit pursue us with a relentlessness past the power of figure to express.

Our world is drowning in a sea of self-centeredness. You can make yourself quite unique right away by leaving this ocean of selfishness and choosing to be curious about other people.

Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak.

Vice is Washington‘s signature. A fish rots from the head, and Washington has led our country into vice, greed, selfishness, and the mockery and destruction of human life.

I was surprised by how much I like being a father; surprised at what a decent father I am, because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to dump my selfishness.

If there were more temple work done in the Church, there would be less of selfishness, less of contention, less of demeaning others.

Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race.

Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil – or else an absolute ignorance.

On immigration, Europe is in danger of displaying the worst of itself: selfishness, haphazard decision-making and rows between member states.

It’s easy to point out the evil in other people, but that can be found in all of us. That selfishness, that is something we all have in us. Sometimes you are successful at dealing with it, and sometimes you are not.

Fellas, if you find a good woman, don’t be scared of commitment. It is good for you. It causes you to grow up and deal with your selfishness like nothing else.

Trees bear fruits only to be eaten by others; the fields grown grains, but they are consumed by the world. Cows give milk, but she doesn’t drink it herself – that is left to others. Clouds send rain only to quench the parched earth. In such giving, there is little space for selfishness.

Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature – opposition to it is his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow.

As time goes on we get closer to that American Dream of there being a pie cut up and shared. Usually greed and selfishness prevent that and there is always one bad apple in every barrel.

Running fills the cup that has to pour out for others. Running feeds the soul that has a responsibility to nourish. Running sets the anchor that limits the drift of the day. Running clears the mind that has a myriad of challenges to solve. Running tends to the self so that selfishness can subside.

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.

‘Star Trek‘ episodes always insisted that humanity is on its bumpy way to what will be a glorious future in the 23rd century, in which we will have left most of our old selfishness – and old hatreds and prejudices – far behind us.

Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion.

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

A number of party… members lack proper discipline, are plagued by individualism, selfishness and opportunism. This gives rise to some individuals‘ words not matching their deeds, not adhering to party rules and regulations and having no proper mechanisms for disciplining those who make mistakes.

Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery.

I believe that the writers of Genesis had detected the inherent selfishness in human nature that I propose is in our genes, and invented the myth of original sin to account for it. It’s an image. I am not acting as an exegete – I don’t interpret scripture.

The 20th century has been marked by cynicism, selfishness, greed, and the desire to please, all without changing the status quo. In the 21st century, we must resurrect solidarity and compassion.

Human nature must have come much nearer perfection than it is now, or will be in many generations, to exclude from such a control prejudice, selfishness, ambition, and injustice.

Being sorry is the highest act of selfishness, seeing value only after discarding it.

I don’t like bullies or selfishness or people who are grumpy.

One of the biggest things we have to be able to do is to handle conflict and handle it correctly. We’re able to look at our biases, look at our frustration, look at our sin in this area, our pride and our selfishness. It allows us to move forward.

When you objectively observe the most spiritual area to which modern people devote themselves, the religions, ask yourself if the basis of modern culture, particularly in religion, is not human self-interest. It is typical of modern sermons that the preacher criticizes people for their selfishness.

Selfishness is one of the more common faces of pride. ‘How everything affects me’ is the center of all that matters – self-conceit, self-pity, worldly self-fulfillment, self-gratification, and self-seeking.

I have freedom. But freedom means total selfishness. It means nobody cares much what you do.

Abortion and racism are both symptoms of a fundamental human error. The error is thinking that when someone stands in the way of our wants, we can justify getting that person out of our lives. Abortion and racism stem from the same poisonous root, selfishness.

Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.

Twin-sister of Religion, Selfishness.

Childlessness doesn’t make people selfish; selfishness makes people selfish.

Good character consists of recognizing the selfishness that inheres in each of us and trying to balance it against the altruism to which we should all aspire. It is a difficult balance to strike, but no definition of goodness can be complete without it.

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.

As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

There are probably only a certain number of people who can understand or tolerate how long a job will take and what demands it puts on you. And why should they? It breeds a strange kind of selfishness immersing yourself in a character for so long.

I have a responsibility to my fellow my community, to my fellow man, and woman. With that said, I create from a place of selfishness, but I’m also cognizant of potential impact on others. And I try to make that impact positive.