Selfish Quotes
More Selfish Quotes
If your actions are motivated by selfish interests rather than God, you are mortgaging tomorrow's joy.
t. b. joshua— On the 2007 Nigerian Elections - "Selfless Service" Modern Ghana (May 28 2009)
The great danger for family life, in the midst of any society whose idols are pleasure, comfort and independence, lies in the fact that people close their hearts and become selfish.
Pope John Paul II— Homily during the Holy Mass at the Capital Mall in Washington, D.C., on 7 October 1979, during the pope's first apostolic journey to the United StatesSource: Libreria Editrice Vaticana
To have known the man was even as great a treat as to read his books. Lewis Carroll was as unlike any other man as his books were unlike any other author's books. It was a relief to meet the pure simple, innocent dreamer of children, after the selfish commercial mind of most authors.
harry furniss— On Lewis Carroll; p.105
'Tis rushing now adown the spout, And gushing out below, Half frantic in its joyousness, And wild in eager flow. The earth is dried and parched with heat, And it hath long'd to be Released from out the selfish cloud, To cool the thirsty tree.
— Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Water.
"I can't love it - what is there to love? It can't love me - or you either; it can't understand a single word you say to it, or feel one spark of gratitude for all your kindness. Wait till it can show some little affection for me, and then I'll see about loving it. At present it is nothing more than a little selfish, senseless sensualist, and if you see anything adorable in it, it's all very well - I only wonder how you can."
anne brontë— Arthur to Helen (Ch. XXVIII : Parental Feelings)
Gentlemen of the Jury: The one, absolute, unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.
George GGraham Vest— Eulogy on the Dog. Found in Elbert Hubbard's Pig-Pen Pete, p. 178.
The United States has lost her unique position as a leader in the progress of civilization and has taken up her place simply as one of the grasping and selfish nations of the present day.
— An imperial moment: in previous times of war fever, clear voices have called for a return to U.S. ideals, The Nation, December 23, 2002, No. 22, Vol. 275; Pg. 16
If my love is without sacrifice , it is selfish . Such a love is barter, for there is exchange of love and devotion in return for something. It is conditional love.
— J.P Vaswani, in How to Overcome Depression and other Heart-to-Heart Talks, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 30 December 2011, p.23
If my love is without sacrifice , it is selfish . Such a love is barter , for there is exchange of love and devotion in return for something. It is conditional love.
— Sadhu Vaswani, in How to OVERCOME DEPRESSION and other Heart-to-Heart Talks, p.23
You do have to be fairly selfish when you have a gift. You cannot afford to let too many outside things get in the way.
sarah brightman— The Independent (1997)
"Mamma does all she can,' said she, 'to make me feel myself a burden and incumbrance to the family, and the most ungrateful, selfish, and undutiful daughter that ever was born;"
anne brontë— Esther to Helen (Ch. XLVIII : Further Intelligences)
All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and say, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.
sarah grimké— Letter 2 (July 17, 1837)
God would be a very selfish god if he gave all the soul to one race. ... When one sings from the heart and it reaches another heart, that's soul.
little richard— Pop Chronicles: Show 15 - The Soul Reformation I: A symposium on soul, interview recorded 1.2.1968.
I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves … too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism: "Our country, right or wrong!" They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: "Our country — when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right."
carl schurz— Speech expanding upon his famous statement in the Senate many years before, at the Anti-Imperialistic Conference, Chicago, Illinois (17 October 1899)
No age is wanting in able men; it is the duty of wise masters to find them out, win them over, and get work done by means of them, without listening to the calumnies of selfish men against them.
aurangzeb— Ruqat-i-Alamgiri, as quoted in Later Mughals : Volume II : 1719-1739 (1922) by Irvine William Irvine
In view of the importance of philanthropy in our society, it is surprising that so little attention has been given to it by economic or social theorists. In economic theory, especially, the subject is almost completely ignored. This is not, I think, because economists regard mankind as basically selfish or even because economic man is supposed to act only in his self-interest; it is rather because economics has essentially grown up around the phenomenon of exchange and its theoretical structure rests heavily on this process.
kenneth boulding— Boulding (1962) "Notes on a Theory of Philanthropy" in: Philanthropy and Public Policy. Frank G. Dickinson, ed., New York, National Bureau of Economic Research.
There is in even the most selfish passion a large element of self-abnegation. It is startling to realize that what we call extreme self-seeking is actually self-renunciation. The miser, health addict, glory chaser and their like are not far behind the selfless in the exercise of self-sacrifice.
Eric Hoffer— Ch. 5: "The Readiness to Work"
There is no hell like that of a selfish heart, and there is no misfortune so great as that of not being able to make a sacrifice. These two thoughts come to me strongly this morning. It is something to have learned these truths so that we can never again doubt them.
julia ward howe— 22 August 1875.
Few human creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals for a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast’s pleasures; no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though they should be persuaded that the fool, the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are with theirs.
john stuart mill— Ch. 2 (Ch. V: Applications)
The charlatan takes very different shapes according to circumstances; but at bottom he is a man who cares nothing about knowledge for its own sake, and only strives to gain the semblance of it that he may use it for his own personal ends, which are always selfish and material.
Arthur Schopenhauer— “Similes, Parables and Fables,” Parerga and Paralipomena, vol. 2, § 394
It seems hopeless, hopeless. Those who eat meat [at public expense] are a mean, selfish lot, and so the country is doomed. Our only hope lies in the grass-roots folk who eat our traditional food.
yoshida shoin— Vol. VI (Yoshida Shoin Zenshu)
Our leaders attempt to blame their failures on circumstances beyond their control, on false estimates by unknown, unidentifiable experts who rewrite modern history in an attempt to convince us our high standard of living, the result of thrift and hard work, is somehow selfish extravagance which we must renounce as we join in sharing scarcity.
— Ronald Reagan, Official Announcement of being a candidate for U.S. President (1979-11-13).
Glory built On selfish principles is shame and guilt .
william cowper— William Cowper, Table Talk, line 1
God would be a very selfish god if he gave all the soul to one race. ... When one sings from the heart and it reaches another heart, that's soul.
— Little Richard, Show 15 - The Soul Reformation I: A symposium on soul, interview recorded 1.2.1968.
God would be a very selfish god if he gave all the soul to one race. ... When one sings from the heart and it reaches another heart, that's soul.
little richard— Little Richard, Pop Chronicles: Show 15 - The Soul Reformation I: A symposium on soul, interview recorded 1.2.1968.
If we desire to do what will please God, and what will help men, we presently find ourselves taken out of our narrow habits of thought and action; we find new elements of our nature called into activity; we are no longer running along a narrow track of selfish habit.
james freeman clarke— p. 536. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
The selfish man cuts away the sand from under his own feet, he digs his own grave; and every time, from the beginning of the world until now, God Almighty pushes him into the grave and covers him up.
charles henry fowler— p. 537. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
People talk of the courage of convictions , but in actual life a man's duty to his family may make a rigid course seem a selfish indulgence of his own righteousness .
— Francis Scott Fitzgerald in: Novels and Stories, 1920-1922, Library of America, 2000, p.431
selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either.
Erich Fromm— Ch. 4 (Man for Himself (1947))
