Self Serving Quotes

• The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Encouragement, Freedom, Business

  "The Power of Purpose: Find Meaning, Live Longer, Better". Book by Richard Leider, p. 35., 2010.

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• If you walk down the street and see someone in a box, you have a choice. That person is either the other and you're fearful of them, or that person is an extension of your family.

  Susan Sarandon

  Diversity, Choices, Brotherhood

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• People had an illogical, self-serving rationale when it came to interpreting the behavior of others.

  Marisha Pessl

  Self, People, Behavior

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• A lot of presidential memoirs, they say, are dull and self-serving. I hope mine is interesting and self-serving.

  William J. Clinton

  Hope, Self, Interesting

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• Most of us hide behind egocentric biases that generate the illusion that we are special. These self-serving protective shields allow us to believe that each of us is above average on any test of self-integrity. Too often we look to the stars through the thick lens of personal invulnerability when we should also look down to the slippery slope beneath our feet.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Stars, Integrity, Believe

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• Smart people instinctively understand the dangers of entrusting our future to self-serving leaders who use our institutions, whether in the corporate or social sectors, to advance their own interests.

  James C. Collins

  Smart, Self, People

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• If you don't allow for self-serving bias in the conduct of others, you are, again, a fool.

  Charlie Munger

  Self, Fool, Bias

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• You also know you’re surrendered when you don’t react to criticism and rush to defend yourself. Surrendered hearts show up best in relationships. You don’t edge others out, you don’t demand your rights, and you aren’t self-serving when you’re surrendered.

  Rick Warren

  Heart, Rights, Self

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• When you meet silent and inscrutable people, don't tell them what you are thinking. When you meet irritable and self-serving people, be careful what you say.

  Zicheng Hong

  Thinking, Self, People

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• You can't defend the indefensible. Anything you say sounds self-serving and hypocritical.

  Diane Abbott

  Self, Sound, Hypocritical

  " Abbott defends indefensible in sending son to private school" by Patrick Wintour, www.theguardian.com. November 1, 2003.

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• Pretty is a self-serving situation in which it's all about you. People who are pretty are superficial, but they are not beautiful. Beauty requires more depth.

  Diane Keaton

  Beautiful, Self, People

  "Diane Keaton on Woody Allen's feet, Al Pacino's nose" by Bob Minzesheimer, www.usatoday.com. April 28, 2014.

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• It would be incredibly presumptuous and self-serving of me to believe that Facebook was the end of history. The only way it could possibly be the end of history is if it becomes some sort of artificial super intelligence that takes over the world.

  Sean Parker

  Believe, Self, Would Be

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• It was self-serving politicians who convinced recent generations of Americans that we could all stand in a circle with our hands in each other’s pockets and somehow get rich.

  Paul Harvey

  Self, Hands, Circles

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• But I tend to think of the expressive part of me as rather tedious - never curious or responsive, but blind and self-serving.

  Mark Strand

  Thinking, Self, Expression

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• [All the ancient wisdom] tells us that work is necessary to us, as much a part of our condition as mortality; that good work is our salvation and our joy; that shoddy or dishonest or self-serving work is our curse and our doom. We have tried to escape the sweat and sorrow promised in Genesis - only to find that, in order to do so, we must forswear love and excellence, health and joy. (pg. 44, "The Unsettling of America")

  Wendell Berry

  Order, Sweat, America

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• Gluttony might be innocuous were it not for the fact that gluttons tend to disregard whether their self-serving behaviors harm anyone else. We don’t need to look far and wide to find examples of gluttonous behavior, as they are numerous throughout the history of capitalism.

  Simon Mainwaring

  Self, Example, Needs

  "Capitalism’s Seven Debtly Sins" by Simon Mainwaring, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 24, 2011.

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• Selfishness is the controlling force of sinful living. It is this motive which pulsates through the natural mind, emotions and will - self-pleasing, self-serving, living for self.

  Walter J Chantry

  Self, Mind, Emotion

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• Assume the worst. About everybody. But don't let this poisoned outlook affect your job performance. Let it all roll off your back. Ignore it. Be amused by what you see and suspect. Just because someone you work with is a miserable, treacherous, self-serving, capricious and corrupt asshole shouldn't prevent you from enjoying their company, working with them or finding them entertaining.

  Anthony Bourdain

  Jobs, Self, Assuming

  Anthony Bourdain (2011). “Tony Bourdain boxset: Kitchen Confidential & Medium Raw”, p.276, A&C Black

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• self-sacrifice is one of a woman's seven deadly sins (along with self-abuse, self-loathing, self-deception, self-pity, self-serving, and self-immolation).

  Sarah Ban Breathnach

  Sacrifice, Self, Deception

  Sarah Ban Breathnach (2009). “Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self”, p.98, Hachette UK

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• Read at least one book a month. This is self-serving, obviously. It's a proven fact that people who read buy more books than people who don't read. In truth, I wish you'd read ten books a month, or at least buy that many.

  Randy Pausch

  Book, Self, People

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• Media bias in editorials and columns is one thing. Media fraud in reporting 'facts' in news stories is something else. ...The issue is not what various journalists or news organizations' editorial views are. The issue is the transformation of news reporting into ideological spin, along with self-serving taboos and outright fraud.

  Thomas Sowell

  News Stories, Self, Views

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• The world has been tragic since the day Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. From that moment murder, mayhem and war entered the scene and we are still suffering the consequences of a man-driven, self-serving, short-sighted environment.

  Louie Giglio

  War, Men, Garden

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• Monks transgress the Laws of the Buddha, stir up the common people, store wealth and weapons, and spread rumors; under the guise of religion, they are nothing more than self-serving agitators.

  Eiji Yoshikawa

  Self, Law, People

  Eiji Yoshikawa (2000). “Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan”, p.359, Kodansha International

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• A letter is not a dialogue or even an omniscient exposition. It is a fabric of surfaces, a mask, a form as well suited to affectations as to the affections. The letter is, by its natural shape, self-justifying; it is one's own evidence, deposition, a self-serving testimony. In a letter the writer holds all the cards, controls everything about himself and about those assertions he wishes to make concerning events or the worth of others. For completely self-centered characters, the letter form is a complex and rewarding activity.

  Elizabeth Hardwick

  Character, Self, Wish

  Elizabeth Hardwick (2011). “Seduction and Betrayal: Women and Literature”, p.195, New York Review of Books

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• The power to regulate the value of money does not involve a power to dilute the value of money by inflation, an absurd and self-serving rendering.

  Thomas Woods

  Self, Doe, Absurd

  Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Kevin R. C. Gutzman (2008). “Who Killed the Constitution?: The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush”, p.92, Crown Forum

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