Self Interest Quotes - Page 11

• What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it... which for the majority translates as 'Bread and Circuses'.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Self, Safety, Democracy

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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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• Self-interest is an ineffable feeling which shall follow us into God's very presence since they say there is a hierarchy even among the Holy Saints.

  Honore de Balzac

  Self, Feelings, Saint

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• Self-interest is the most ingenious and persuasive of all the agents that deceive our consciences, while by means of it our unhappy and stubborn prejudices operate in their greatest force.

  William C. Bryant

  Mean, Self, Unhappy

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• Freedom is indivisible, and either we are working for freedom or you are working for the sake of your self-interests and I am working for mine.

  June Jordan

  Freedom, Self, Sake

  June Jordan (2009). “Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays”, p.92, Basic Books

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• Trust a witness in all matters in which neither his self-interest, his passions, his prejudices, nor the love of the marvellous is strongly concerned. When they are involved, require corroborative evidence in exact proportion to the contravention of probability by the thing testified.

  Thomas Huxley

  Passion, Self, Prejudice

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• I would define morality as enlightened self-interest...That old Platonic ideal that there are certain pure moral forms just isn't where we are.

  Andrew Young

  Self, Morality, Enlightened

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• Generosity is also an act of freedom, a casting off of the constraints of prudence and self-interest.

  Marilynne Robinson

  Casting Off, Self, Generosity

  "What A Shy Waitress Taught Me About Generosity" by Marilynne Robinson, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 2, 2013.

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• What proposition is there respecting human nature which is absolutely and universally true? We know of only one,--and that is not only true, but identical,--that men always act from self-interest.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Men, Self, Humanity

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• In view of the importance of philanthropy in our society, it is surprising that so little attention has been given to it by economic or social theorists. In economic theory, especially, the subject is almost completely ignored. This is not, I think, because economists regard mankind as basically selfish or even because economic man is supposed to act only in his self-interest; it is rather because economics has essentially grown up around the phenomenon of exchange and its theoretical structure rests heavily on this process.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Selfish, Men, Thinking

  "Notes on a Theory of Philanthropy". "Philanthropy and Public Policy", edited by Frank G. Dickinson, 1962.

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• Any act of injury done from self-interest, whether amounting to killing or not, is doubtless himsa.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Self, Done, Violence

  Mahatma Gandhi (1970). “Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi”

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• The idea of the self interests me a great deal. What is the self? And finding yourself, and which self? In a way, we're more than one self, but you somehow try to get to a rock bottom self.

  Malcolm Morley

  Ideas, Rocks, Self

  "Malcolm Morley and the self". Interview with Emily McDermott, www.interviewmagazine.com. April 20, 2015.

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• Politics and self-interest have been so uniformly connected, that the world, from being so often deceived, has a right to be suspicious of public characters.

  Thomas Paine

  Character, Self, Political

  Thomas Paine (2016). “THE RIGHTS OF MAN: The French Revolution – Ideals, Arguments & Motives (Political Classic): Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution”, p.213, e-artnow

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• There's nothing wrong with being proud of America, believing that America can do great things. America can do great things, it has done great things. I think we have to have the self-awareness to recognize that the world is a very, very big place, that we could be a force for good things in the world, but we have to have the humility to recognize that sometimes even when we think we're acting from the best of motives our own idealism can be infected by self-interest. Other people in other countries can see it sometimes better than we can.

  Peter Beinart

  Country, Believe, Humility

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Quite simply, there can be no popular sovereignty without a real belief in the value of government. If government does not assume and carry out public responsibilities, less accountable institutions such as the corporation will do the job in their own self-interest.

  Charles Derber

  Jobs, Real, Responsibility

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• In the polling booth narrow self interest wins out over lofty principles.

  James Cook

  Winning, Self, Principles

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• The dog has no ambition, no self-interest, no desire for vengeance, no fear other than that of displeasing.

  Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

  Dog, Ambition, Self

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• Nowhere has truth such a short life as in Sicily; a fact has scarcely happened five minutes before its genuine kernel has vanished, been camouflaged, embellished, disfigured, squashed, annihilated by imagination and self interest; shame, fear, generosity, malice, opportunism, charity, all the passions, good as well as evil, fling themselves onto the fact and tear it to pieces; very soon it has vanished altogether.

  Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

  Short Life, Passion, Self

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• We have an infinite capacity for self interest, yet the infinite has absolutely no interest in us

  Dean Cavanagh

  Self, Infinite, Capacity

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• The basic of all morality is duty, a concept with the same relation to group that self-interest has to individual.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Self, Groups, Morality

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• This is not to say that becoming a father automatically makes you a good father. Fatherhood, like marriage, is a constant struggle against your limitations and self-interests. But the urge to be a perfect father is there, because your child is a perfect gift.

  Kent Nerburn

  Marriage, Children, Father

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• [U]nless oppressed groups stick together, and on alliances of self interest rather than do-goodism; nothing can be accomplished in the long run to dismantle the apparatus of oppression.

  Shulamith Firestone

  Running, Self, Long

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• Every time I tried to express my most heartfelt desires to be morally good I met with contempt and ridicule; and as soon as I would give in to vile passions I was praised and encouraged. Ambition, love of power, self-interest, lechery, pride, anger, vengeance-all of it was highly esteemed.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Passion, Ambition, Pride

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• The marketplace is a wondrous institution. It harnesses the self-interest of each of us and puts it to work for the benefit of all. And it does so without intruding upon our desires, our privacy, or our freedom. It is regulation by reality, not by coercion.

  Harry Browne

  Reality, Self, Desire

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• Wall Street can be a dangerous place for investors. You have no choice but to do business there, but you must always be on your guard. The standard behavior of Wall Streeters is to pursue maximization of self-interest; the orientation is usually short term. This must be acknowledged, accepted, and dealt with. If you transact business with Wall Street with these caveats in mind, you can prosper. If you depend on Wall Street to help you, investment success may remain elusive.

  Seth Klarman

  Wall, Investment Success, Self

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