SELFISHNESS QUOTES
quotations about selfishness
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
I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
Notes from the Underground
Selfish people are hard to love because so little love comes out of them.
WILLIAM NICHOLSON
Shadowlands
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
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
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
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
Only those who quit selfishly seeking their own happiness find it.
RICHELLE E. GOODRICH
Smile Anyway
Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness.
RICHARD BACH
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
How much that the world calls selfishness is only generosity with narrow walls.
THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON
Outdoor Studies
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
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
What need we any spur but our own cause,
To prick us to redress?
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Julius Caesar
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
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