Selfishness Quotes - Page 2

• The organization and constant onward sweep of this movement exemplifies the resentment of the many toward the selfishness, greed and the neglect of the few.

  John L. Lewis

  Organization, Greed, Movement

  Labor and the Nation, delivered 3 September 1937 in Washington D.C.

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• Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Selfish, Sensual, Failing

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1958). “Emerson: A Modern Anthology”

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

  Israel Zangwill

  Real, Religion, Atheism

  Israel Zangwill (1901). “Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People”, p.1004, Library of Alexandria

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• A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's.

  Richard Whately

  Selfish, Helping Others, Men

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• Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak.

  Madame de Stael

  Men, Weak

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

  Franz Kafka

  Educational, Tyrants, Two

  Franz Kafka (2013). “Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors”, p.357, Schocken

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• It may be a cold, clammy thing to say, but those that treat friendship the same as any other selfishness seem to get the most out of it.

  E. W. Howe

  Friendship, May, Cold

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• Less, less of self each day, And more, my God, of Thee!

  Horatius Bonar

  Self, Each Day, Thee

  Horatius Bonar (1866). “Hymns of Faith and Hope. First series”, p.85

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• 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.

  Andrew Coyle Bradley

  Healthy, Suffering, Might

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• 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.

  George A. Smith

  Memories, Passion, Pride

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• Thorough selfishness destroys or paralyzes enjoyment. A heart made selfish by the contest for wealth is like a citadel stormed in war, utterly shattered.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Selfish, War, Heart

  Henry Ward Beecher, William Drysdale (1887). “Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit”

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• You have to be selfish to be an actor.

  Charles Dance

  Selfish, Actors, Being Selfish

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• Our infinite obligations to God do not fill our hearts half as much as a petty uneasiness of our own; nor His infinite perfections as much as our smallest wants.

  Hannah More

  Heart, Perfection, Half

  Hannah More (1840). “Miscellaneous Works: Tragedies. Miscellaneous poems. Hymns and ballads. Sacred Dramas. Coelebs. Practical piety. Moriana”, p.719

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• It is self-love and its offspring self-deception, which shut the gates of heaven, and lead men, as if in a delicious dream, to hell.

  Christian Scriver

  Dream, Men, Self

  Christian Scriver (1857). “Gotthold's Emblems: or Invisible things understood by things that are made. Tr. by R. Menzies”, p.128

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• Law represents the effort of man to organize society; governments, the efforts of selfishness to overthrow liberty.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Selfish, Men, Law

  Henry Ward Beecher, William Drysdale (1887). “Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit”

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• 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.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Honesty, Integrity, Philosophy

  "Stop the Madness". "The Globe and Mail" Newspaper, July 6, 2002.

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• Milton has carefully marked in his Satan the intense selfishness, the alcohol of egotism, which would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Alcohol, Heaven, Reign

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1853). “The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions”, p.303

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• How much that the world calls selfishness is only generosity with narrow walls,--a too exclusive solicitude to maintain a wife in luxury, or make one's children rich.

  Thomas Wentworth Higginson

  Children, Wall, Luxury

  Thomas Wentworth Higginson (2007). “Outdoor Studies, Poems”, p.234, Reprint Services Corporation

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• Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
  The wretch, concentred all in self,
  Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
  And, doubly dying, shall go down
  To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
  Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung.

  Walter Scott

  Groundhog Day, Self, Dust

  The Lay of the Last Minstrel canto 6, st. 1 (1805)

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• As frost to the bud, and blight to the blossom, even such is self-interest to friendship; for confidence cannot dwell where selfishness is porter at the gate.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Self, Frost, Bud

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1851). “Proverbial philosophy”, p.202

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• We wish to constitute all the happiness, or, if that cannot be, the misery of the one we love.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Self Love, Wish, Misery

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• How often, in this cold and bitter world, is the warm heart thrown back upon itself! Cold, careless, are we of another's grief; we wrap ourselves in sullen selfishness.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Grief, Heart, World

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1841). “Life and literary remains of L.E.L. [ed.] by L. Blanchard”

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• Being stubborn has helped, being selfish is not a bad thing.

  Herbie Mann

  Selfish, Stubborn, Bad Things

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• The essence of true nobility is neglect of self. Let the thought of self pass in, and the beauty of a great action is gone, like the bloom from a soiled flower.

  James Anthony Froude

  Flower, Essence, Self

  James Anthony Froude (1871). “Short Studies on Great Subjects”, p.24

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• There is more selfishness and less principle among members of Congress than I had any conception of, before I became President of the U.S.

  James K. Polk

  Presidential, Political, Principles

  James K. Polk (2015). “The Diary of James K. Polk During His Presidency”, p.399, BIG BYTE BOOKS

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