Egoism Quotes

• God is the Sun and when His rays fall upon your heart, not impeded by the clouds of egoism, the lotus blooms and the petals unfold.

  Sathya Sai Baba

  Fall, Heart, Clouds

  FaceBook post by Sri Sathya Sai Baba from Jan 17, 2012

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• What we now want is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth, and the elimination of egoism and pride which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism and strife... Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment.

  Nikola Tesla

  Pride, Community, Understanding

  Nikola Tesla (2016). “My Inventions: And Other Writings”, p.54, Courier Dover Publications

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• For a solitary animal egoism is a virtue that tends to preserve and improve the species: in any kind of community it becomes a destructive vice.

  Erwin Schrodinger

  Animal, Community, Vices

  Erwin Schrodinger (2012). “What is Life?: With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches”, p.101, Cambridge University Press

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• It’s in our interest to take care of others. Self-centrednes s is opposed to basic human nature. In our own interest as human beings we need to pay attention to our inner values. Sometimes people think compassion is only of help to others, while we get no benefit. This is a mistake. When you concern yourself with others, you naturally develop a sense of self-confidence . To help others takes courage and inner strength.

  Dalai Lama

  Wise, Confidence, Spiritual

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• We must master our egoism, and through this mastery, step outside ourselves and educate ourselves in giving. Fasting requires that we rediscover all that is alive around us, and reconcile ourselves with our environment.

  Tariq Ramadan

  Giving, Fasting, Mastery

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• Egoism is the very essence of a noble soul.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Essence, Soul, Noble

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• Self-interest, or rather self-love, or egoism, has been more plausibly substituted as the basis of morality.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Self, Morality, Interest

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin”, p.349

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• Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Integrity, Selfish, Creativity

  Martin Luther King Jr. (1963). “Strength to Love”

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• Human pride and egoism always create divisions, build walls of indifference, hate and violence. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, makes hearts capable of understanding the languages of all, as he re-establishes the bridge of authentic communication between earth and Heaven.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Wall, Hate, Communication

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• In the development of mankind as a whole, just as in individuals, love alone acts as the civilizing factor in the sense that it brings a change from egoism to altruism.

  Sigmund Freud

  Love, Development, Individual

  Sigmund Freud (2015). “Group Psychology and The Analysis of The Ego: Illustrated & Psychology Glossary & Index Added Inside”, p.75, eKitap Projesi

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• Perhaps it will be found that to obtain a just republic (and it is to secure our just rights that we resort to government at all) it must be so extensive as that local egoisms may never reach its greater part; that on every particular question, a majority may be found in its councils free from particular interests, and giving, therefore, an uniform prevalence to the principles of justice.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Rights, Government, Giving

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798”, p.165, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief.

  George Eliot

  Ego, Doe, Belief

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.345, Penguin

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• Do not make the mistake of the ignorant who think that an individualist is a man who says: “I’ll do as I please at everybody else’s expense.” An individualist is a man who recognizes the inalienable individual rights of man—his own and those of others.

  Ayn Rand

  Respect, Mistake, Men

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.231, Penguin

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• The common trait of all evil is nothing other than egoism... Basically all human evil comes from what we call the selfishness.

  Rudolf Steiner

  Evil, Selfishness, Common

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• An animal that embarks on forming states without greatly restricting egoism will perish.

  Erwin Schrodinger

  Animal, States

  Erwin Schrodinger (2012). “What is Life?: With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches”, p.101, Cambridge University Press

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• When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.

  John Ruskin

  Motivational, Witty, Attitude

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• The more you make this world about you, the more miserable you will be.

  Matt Chandler

  World, Miserable, This World

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• I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

  Ayn Rand

  Life, Relationship, Bad Ass

  Atlas Shrugged pt. 3, ch. 1 (1957)

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• There is no word more generally misinterpreted than the word egoism, in its modern sense.

  John Buchanan Robinson

  Modern, Misinterpreted

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• I want every fan of Rand to hear [Polaha] say the classic Galt phrase: “I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

  John Galt

  Men, Fans, Phrases

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• I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls.

  Albert Einstein

  Atheist, Soul, Wish

  Albert Einstein (2011). “The World As I See It”, p.15, Open Road Media

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• I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.

  Albert Einstein

  God, Religious, Atheist

  Albert Einstein (2010). “Ideas And Opinions”, p.11, Broadway Books

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• It's no accident that capitalism has brought with it progress, not merely in production but also in knowledge. Egoism and competition are, alas, stronger forces than public spirit and sense of duty.

  Albert Einstein

  Competition, Stronger, Progress

  Albert Einstein (2016). “The Albert Einstein Collection: Essays in Humanism, The Theory of Relativity, and The World As I See It”, p.208, Open Road Media

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• Every man of action has a strong dose of egoism, pride, hardness, and cunning. But all those things will be regarded as high qualities if he can make them the means to achieve great ends.

  Giorgos Seferis

  Strong, Mean, Pride

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• In brief, egoism in its modern interpretation, is the antithesis, not of altruism, but of idealism.

  John Buchanan Robinson

  Modern, Idealism And Realism, Interpretation

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