Self Interest Quotes - Page 14

• The claims of existing social arrangements and of self interest have been duly allowed for. We cannot at the end count them a second time because we do not like the result.

  John Rawls

  Self, Social, Ends

  John Rawls (2009). “A Theory of Justice”, p.117, Harvard University Press

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• By a kind of happy pre-established harmony, such as a later age discovered between the needs of society and the self-interest of the individual, success in business is in itself almost a sign of spiritual grace, for it is a proof that a man has laboured faithfully in his vocation.

  R. H. Tawney

  Spiritual, Men, Self

  R. H. Tawney (2016). “Religion and the Rise of Capitalism”, p.210, Verso Books

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• With the more endowed nations constrained by their own higher technological capacity for self-destruction as well as by self interest, war may have become a luxury that only the poor peoples of this world can afford.

  Zbigniew Brzezinski

  War, Luxury, Self

  Zbigniew Brzezinski (2007). “The Grand Chessboard”, p.199, Basic Books

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• The most altruistic and sustainable philosophies fail before the brute brain stem imperative of self-interest.

  Peter Watts

  Philosophy, Self, Brain

  Peter Watts (2006). “Blindsight”, p.48, Macmillan

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• We are fast approaching a situation in which nobody will believe anything we [physicists] say in any matter that touches upon our self-interest. Nothing we do is likely to arrest our decline in numbers, support or social value.

  Leo Kadanoff

  Believe, Social Values, Self

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• In a nuclear age, and in an age of serious environmental degradation, apocalyptic belief creates a serious second order danger. The precarious logic of self-interest that saw us through the Cold War would collapse if the leaders of one nuclear state came to welcome, or ceased to fear mass death.

  Ian Mcewan

  War, Self, Order

  "The day of judgment, part two" by Ian McEwan, www.theguardian.com. May 31, 2008.

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• Casting a spell, in self-defense or in self-interest is not selfish, but positive, life-affirming. You have been given powers, the very same powers that society devalues... What if it comes back tenfold? Well, don't be a fool. Never use your magick to attack the innocent. Then you have nothing to fear... Don't be frivolous or cowardly. If your course is righteous, and your tools ready, go to it.

  Zsuzsanna Budapest

  Selfish, Positive Life, What If

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• The new world economic order is not an exercise in philanthropy, but in enlightened self-interest for everyone concerned.

  Carlos Fuentes

  Exercise, Self, Order

  Carlos Fuentes (1985). “Latin America: At War With the Past”, House of Anansi Press

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• Aside from higher considerations, charity often operates as a vastly wise and prudent principle-a great safeguard to its possessor. Men have committed murder for jealousy's sake, and anger's sake, and hatred's sake, and selfishness' sake, and spiritual pride's sake; but no man that ever I heard of, ever committed a diabolical murder for sweet charity's sake. Mere self-interest, then, if no better motive can be enlisted, should, especially with high-tempered men, prompt all beings to charity and philanthropy.

  Herman Melville

  Wise, Spiritual, Sweet

  Herman Melville (1995). “Bartleby, the Scrivener: a Story of Wall-Street”, p.29, Lulu.com

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• President Ford was a devoted, decent man of impeccable integrity who put service to his country before his own self interest. He helped heal our nation during a time of crisis, provided steady leadership and restored people's faith in the presidency and in government.

  Mark Udall

  Leadership, Country, Integrity

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• The working of great institutions is mainly the result of a vast mass of routine, petty malice, self interest, carelessness and sheer mistake. Only a residual fraction is thought.

  George Santayana

  Mistake, Self, Cynical

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• Something is clearly wrong with Kansas and the rest of Middle America when it comes to letting economic self-interest guide their voting.

  Howell Raines

  Self, Kansas, America

  "Obama, don't run from class warfare" by Howell Raines, www.cnn.com. September 27, 2011.

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• Capitalism is based on self-interest and self-esteem; it holds integrity and trustworthiness as cardinal virtues and makes them pay off in the marketplace, thus demanding that men survive by means of virtue, not vices. It is this superlatively moral system that the welfare statists propose to improve upon by means of preventative law, snooping bureaucrats, and the chronic goad of fear.

  Alan Greenspan

  Integrity, Self Esteem, Mean

  "Word for Word/'Greenspan Shrugged'; When Greed Was a Virtue And Regulation the Enemy" by Bill Goldstein, www.nytimes.com. July 21, 2002.

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• Prior to the advent of the civilization of the Third Estate (mercantilism, capitalism), the social ethics that was religiously sanctioned in the West consisted in realizing one’s being and in achieving one’s own perfection within the fixed parameters that one’s individual nature and the group to which one belonged clearly defined. Economic activity, work, and profit were justified only in the measure in which they were necessary for sustenance and to ensure the dignity of an existence conformed to one’s own estate, without the lower instinct of self-interest or profit coming first.

  Julius Evola

  Self, Civilization, Perfection

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• The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own. Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the true cost of the leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest.

  Simon Sinek

  Self, Leader, Needs

  Simon Sinek (2014). “Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't”, p.8, Penguin

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• Men follow their sentiments and their self-interest, but it pleases them to imagine that they follow reason. And so they look for, and always find, some theory which, a posteriori, makes their actions appear to be logical. If that theory could be demolished scientifically, the only result would be that another theory would be substituted for the first one, and for the same purpose.

  Vilfredo Pareto

  Men, Self, Would Be

  Vilfredo Pareto (1971). “Manual of political economy”, Augustus m Kelley Pubs

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• Solidarity is not a matter of altruism. Solidarity comes from the inability to tolerate the affront to our own integrity of passive or active collaboration in the oppression of others, and from the deep recognition of our most expansive self-interest. From the recognition that, like it or not, our liberation is bound up with that of every other being on the planet, and that politically, spiritually, in our heart of hearts we know anything else is unaffordable.

  Aurora Levins Morales

  Integrity, Heart, Self

  Aurora Levins Morales (1998). “Medicine Stories: History, Culture, and the Politics of Integrity”, p.125, South End Press

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• When business starts using its voice for the benefit of the country as a whole, not just in its narrow self interest, it can really be the force that can make the changes that need to be made.

  Ben Cohen

  Country, Self, Voice

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• This is the power of art: The power to transcend our own self-interest, our solipsistic zoom-lens on life, and relate to the world and each other with more integrity, more curiosity, more wholeheartedness.

  Maria Popova

  Art, Integrity, Self

  "What Is Art? Favorite Famous Definitions, from Antiquity to Today" by Maria Popova, www.brainpickings.org. June 22, 2012.

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• What I capture in spite of myself interests me more than my own ideas.

  Pablo Picasso

  Ideas, Capture, Spite

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• It is important that when pursing our own self-interest we should be 'wise selfish' and not 'foolish selfish'. Being foolish selfish means pursuing our own interests in a narrow, shortsighted way. Being wise selfish means taking a broader view and recognizing that our own long-term individual interest lies in the welfare of everyone. Being wise selfish means being compassionate.

  Dalai Lama

  Wise, Selfish, Lying

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• It is in your self-interest to find a way to be very tender.

  Jenny Holzer

  Self, Way, Interest

  Jenny Holzer, Stefan Banz, Thomas Whitridge, Béatrix Ruf (2001). “Jenny Holzer: xenon”

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• If there is one thing I’ve learned in my years on this planet, it’s that the happiest and most fulfilled people I’ve known are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self interest.

  John Glenn

  Self, Years, People

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• Neither fear nor self-interest can convert the soul. They may change the appearance, perhaps even the conduct, but never the object of supreme desire... Fear is the motive which constrains the slave; greed binds the selfish man, by which he is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed (James 1:14). But neither fear nor self-interest is undefiled, nor can they convert the soul. Only charity can convert the soul, freeing it from unworthy motives.

  Bernard of Clairvaux

  Fear, Selfish, Men

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• Love is reckless; not reason. Reason seeks a profit. Loves comes on strong, consuming herself unabashed. Yet in the midst of suffering love proceeds like a millstone, hard surfaced and straight forward. Having died to self interest, she risks everything and asks for nothing. Love gambles away every gift God bestows. Without cause God gave us Being; without cause give it back again. Gambling yourself away is beyond any religion. Religion seeks grace and favor, but those who gamble these away are God's favorites, for they neither put God to the test nor knock at the door of gain and loss.

  Rumi

  Strong, Buddhist, Loss

  Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi, “Love Is Reckless”

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