SELFISHNESS QUOTES

quotations about selfishness

Selfishness quote

Selfishness is a gift of nature. Unselfishness is an accomplishment.

JOSEPH MAYER

attributed, Words of Wisdom and Quotable Quotes


In proportion as a man is selfish, so far has he receded from the motive which constitutes virtue.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

letter to Thomas Jefferson Hogg, May 13, 1811


Selfish people are hard to love because so little love comes out of them.

WILLIAM NICHOLSON

Shadowlands


I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

Notes from the Underground

Tags: Fyodor Dostoevsky


The very heart and root of sin is in an independent spirit. We erect the idol self; and not only wish others to worship, but worship ourselves.

RICHARD CECIL

attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers


Selfishness does not mean only to do things for one's self. One may do things, affecting others, for his own pleasure and benefit. This is not immoral, but the highest of morality.

AYN RAND

Journals of Ayn Rand

Tags: Ayn Rand


Almost every sinful action ever committed can be traced back to a selfish motive.

STEPHEN KENDRICK

The Love Dare


Selfishness is a swamp that sucks in all and gives out nothing.

JOHN THORNTON

Maxims and Directions for Youth

Tags: John Thornton


We are not slow at discovering the selfishness of others; for this plain reason--because it clashes with our own.

FULKE GREVILLE

Maxims, Characters and Reflections

Tags: Fulke Greville


Only those who quit selfishly seeking their own happiness find it.

RICHELLE E. GOODRICH

Smile Anyway


How much that the world calls selfishness is only generosity with narrow walls.

THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON

Outdoor Studies


Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness.

RICHARD BACH

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Tags: Richard Bach


Selfish one why keep your love to yourself
Oh oh yeah
It's like a souvenir that just sits on a shelf
Oh oh oh oh oh oh
It seems like you built a fence
Around your heart
And afraid that sharing
Might tear it apart

JACKIE ROSS

"Selfish One"


The man who is a slave to selfishness, could look calmly on the wreck of nature, and the crush of worlds, if it would add one item to his wealth.

LEVI CARROLL JUDSON

The Probe, or, One Hundred and Two Essays on the Nature of Men and Things


Better not to plant seeds of selfishness than try to eradicate them once they have grown into giant weeds.

PREM PRAKASH

The Yoga of Spiritual Devotion: A Modern Translation of the Narada Bhakti Sutras


Selfish. A judgment readily passed by those who have never tested their own power of sacrifice.

GEORGE ELIOT

Silas Marner

Tags: George Eliot


The howl of self-interest is loud ... but the heart is black which throbs solely to its note.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

letter to Elizabeth Hitchener, June 11, 1811

Tags: Percy Bysshe Shelley


What need we any spur but our own cause,
To prick us to redress?

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Julius Caesar

Tags: William Shakespeare


He or she who is selfish is wanting in humanity. And he or she who is wanting in humanity is lower than the brute creation. The lower animals prove often by their acts that they are unselfish; then let selfish persons be taught by them. I give it as my experience that I have met with more unselfish women than men, but I hope this is not the rule, as it certainly ought to be the reverse. Children should always be taught to share all they get with other children, then they are not so likely to grow up selfish. The habit of living much alone seems to make people sometimes selfish. We often notice it in bachelors; this being an unnatural state, makes persons ofttimes unnatural and selfish. Then, I say, let the habit of unselfishness be cultivated as a Christian duty towards one's fellow man. In adding to the happiness of others, we add to our own, and make life far grander, far sweeter, far nobler, and in every sense, present and future, far happier. He who lives for self alone is a prisoner in a dirty cell, with a very limited view of the world, the beauties of creation, or the knowledge or taste of the greatest of all earthly happiness, that of trying to make others happy.

T. AUGUSTUS FORBES LEITH

"On Selfishness", Short Essays


The selfish man believes that by closing his heart against his fellows, and centering in self every thought and feeling, he escapes much suffering; but his egotistical calculations are invariably defeated; for his contracted sympathies being all directed to one focus, he so aggravates the ills he endures, that he expends on self alone more painful pity than the most enthusiastic philanthropist devotes to mankind.

MARGUERITE GARDINER

Desultory Thoughts and Reflections: By the Countess of Blessington