Altruism Quotes - Page 7

• The biggest pests are the people who use altruism as an alibi. What they passionately wish is to make themselves important.

  Isabel Paterson

  People, Wish, Important

  Isabel Paterson (1993). “The God of the Machine”, p.40, Transaction Publishers

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Restoration ecology is experimental science, a science of love and altruism. In its attempts to reverse the processes of ecosystem degradation it runs exactly counter to the market system, to land speculation, to the whole cultural attitude of regarding the Earth as commodity rather than community. It is a soft-souled science.

  Stephanie Mills

  Running, Attitude, Land

  6 Copy quote

• Social Science … led us to the fallacy that, since all men have their being in culture and as a result of culture, they owe a debt to that culture which even a lifetime of altruism could not repay.

  David Riesman

  Men, Culture, Debt

  David Riesman (1966). “Individualism Reconsidered, and Other Essays”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The sun of truth rises in the human being and illuminates his world when he lifts his mind from the darkness of ignorance and selfishness into the light of wisdom and altruism

  Samael Aun Weor

  Ignorance, Light, Darkness

  35 Copy quote

• The three values which men had held for centuries and which have now collapsed are: mysticism, collectivism, altruism. Mysticism — as a cultural power — died at the time of the Renaissance. Collectivism — as a political ideal — died in World War II. As to altruism — it has never been alive. It is the poison of death in the blood of Western civilization, and men survived it only to the extent to which they neither believed nor practiced it.

  Ayn Rand

  War, Men, Civilization

  "Philosophy: Who Needs It".

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Compassion, along with love, is the face of altruism.

  Dalai Lama

  Love Is, Compassion, Faces

  4 Copy quote

• All religion teaches the virtues of love, altruism and patience, while showing us how to discipline and transform ourselves to achieve inner peace and a kind heart. Therefore, they are worthy of our respect.

  Dalai Lama

  Heart, Discipline, Inner Peace

  5 Copy quote

• Force, governmental coercion, is the instrument by which the ethics of altruism - the belief that the individual exists to serve others - is translated into political reality.

  Nathaniel Branden

  Reality, Government, Political

  4 Copy quote

• A current pejorative adjective is narcissistic. Generally, a narcissist is anyone better looking than you are, but lately the adective is often applied to those "liberals" who prefer to improve the lives of others rather than exploit them. Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the hightest altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to pay for our vast freedom not only to conform but to consume.

  Gore Vidal

  Self, Concern For Others, Greed

  "Screening History (Growing Up With Gore Vidal)". Book by Gore Vidal (p. 24), 1994.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Enthusiasm is the thing which makes the world go round. Without its driving power, nothing worth doing has ever been done. Love, friendship, religion, altruism, devotion to career or hobby-all these, and most of the other good things of life, are forms of enthusiasm.

  Robert Haven Schauffler

  Careers, Hobbies, Friendship Love

  4 Copy quote

• One reason that a truth and reconciliation process is needed for group selection is to return to the simplicity of the original problem and Darwin’s solution. As Ed Wilson and I put it in our recent review article titled “Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology“: Selfishness beats altruism within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups. Everything else is commentary.

  David Sloan Wilson

  Selfish, Simplicity, Foundation

  "Truth and Reconciliation for Group Selection II: The Original Problem" by David Sloan Wilson, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 1, 2009.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• All the others arts are lonely. We paint alone--my picture, my interpretation of the sky. My poem, my novel. But in music--ensemble music, not soloism--we share. No altruism this, for we receive tenfold what we give.

  Catherine Drinker Bowen

  Music, Lonely, Art

  Catherine Drinker Bowen (1939). “Friends and fiddlers”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Whatever is not nailed down is mine. What I can pry loose is not nailed down.

  Collis Potter Huntington

  Funny, Humorous, Cynicism

  9 Copy quote

• An altruist is one who would be sincerely sorry to see his neighbor's children devoured by wolves.

  H. L. Mencken

  Children, Sorry, Would Be

  5 Copy quote

• Egoism , which is the moving force of the world, and altruism , which is its morality , these two contradictory instincts , of which one is so plain and the other so mysterious, cannot serve us unless in the incomprehensible alliance of their irreconcilable antagonism.

  Joseph Conrad

  Moving, Two, World

  Joseph Conrad “Heart of Darkness”, W. W. Norton & Company

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Barring love and war, few enterprises are undertaken with such abandon, or by such diverse individuals, or with so paradoxical a mixture of appetite and altruism, as that group of avocations known as outdoor recreation. It is, by common consent, a good thing for people to get back to nature. But wherein lies the goodness, and what can be done to encourage its pursuit?

  Aldo Leopold

  Lying, War, People

  Aldo Leopold (1989). “A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There”, p.165, Oxford University Press, USA

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Altruism is a barbarism. Love is the word.

  John Lancaster Spalding

  Love Is, Barbarism

  John Lancaster Spalding (1901). “Aphorisms and Reflections: Conduct, Culture and Religion”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Do you know that my personal crusade in life (in the philosophical sense) is not merely to fight collectivism, nor to fight altruism? These are only consequences, effects, not causes. I am out after the real cause, the real root of evil on earth the irrational.

  Ayn Rand

  Real, Philosophical, Fighting

  Ayn Rand (1997). “Letters of Ayn Rand”, p.382, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• By consequence I hold that no one ever did, or can do, anything for "society."... Comte invented the term altruism as an antonym for egoism, and it found its way at once into everyone's mouth, although it is utterly devoid of meaning, since it points to nothing that ever existed in mankind; This hybrid or rather this degenerate form of hedonism served powerfully to invest collectivism's principles with a specious moral sanction, and collectivists naturally made the most of it.

  Albert J. Nock

  Principles, Mouths, Way

  "Memoirs of a Superfluous Man" by Albert J. Nock, (p. 305), 1943.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• At the core, our motives are always self-serving, Kate. Altruism is a fog created by sly minds seeking to benefit from the energy and skill of others. Nothing more.

  Ilona Andrews

  Fog, Self, Skills

  Ilona Andrews (2009). “Magic Strikes”, p.67, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is a whole field of inquiry that has come up in the last 30 or 40 years - some call it sociobiology or evolutionary psychology - relating to where we get our moral sense and why we value the idea of altruism, and locating both answers in behavioral adaptations for the preservation of our genes.

  Richard Dawkins

  Ideas, Years, Psychology

  Source: inters.org

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Will we rise to the challenge and prove our capacity for genuine altruism by ending our ruthless exploitation of the species in our power, not because we are forced to do so by rebels or terrorists, but because we recognize that our position is morally indefensible?

  Peter Singer

  Challenges, Rebel, Genuine

  Peter Singer (1975). “Animal liberation: a new ethics for our treatment of animals”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• That men, in reality, did not have friends in other men. That the fellowship of men, despite its joyous banter, old memories of exaggerated mischief and the altruism of sharing pornography, was actually a farcical fellowship. Because what a man really wanted was to be bigger than his friends.

  Manu Joseph

  Memories, Reality, Men

  Manu Joseph (2011). “Serious Men”, p.10, HarperCollins Publishers

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The only justifiable stopping place for for the expansion of altruism is the point at which all whose welfare can be affected by our actions are included within the circle of altruism. This means that all beings with the capacity to feel pleasure or pain should be included; we can improve their welfare by increasing their pleasures and diminishing their pains.

  Peter Singer

  Pain, Mean, Circles

  Peter Singer (1982). “The expanding circle: ethics and sociobiology”, Plume

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Men who have sacrifice their well-being, and even their lives, for the cause of truth or the public good, are, from an empirical point of view - which scorn ("fait fi", Fr.) virtue and altruism - regarded as insane or fools; but, from a moral standpoint, they are heros who do honour ("qui honorent", Fr.) humanity.

  African Spir

  Hero, Sacrifice, Men

  "Paroles d'un sage: Choix de pensées d'African Spir" ("Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir") by Hélène Claparède-Spir, (p. 38), 1937.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source