Selfish Interest Quotes

• It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

  Adam Smith

  Business, Invisible Hand, Government

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 2 (1776)

  213 Copy quote

  Show source

• Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

  Oscar Wilde

  Life, Sad, Beautiful

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “Aphorisms”, p.64, Oscar Wilde

  75 Copy quote

  Show source

• Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Love, Self, Enemy

  29 Copy quote

• A life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of personal desires will sooner or later always lead to bitter disappointment.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Life, Disappointment

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.232, Princeton University Press

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.

  Adam Smith

  Happiness, Selfish, Men

  Adam Smith (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Adam Smith (Illustrated)”, p.19, Delphi Classics

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  15 Copy quote

• When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.

  Thomas Sowell

  Truth, Lying, Helping Others

  Thomas Sowell (2011). “The Thomas Sowell Reader”, p.398, Basic Books

  301 Copy quote

  Show source

• Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Animal, Men, Self

  11 Copy quote

• There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.

  Chanakya

  Friendship, Education, Self

  51 Copy quote

• Selfish interest is one of the most common obstructions to the advance of truth.

  William Jennings Bryan

  Selfish, Common, Interest

  William Jennings Bryan (1922). “In His Image: By William Jennings Bryan”

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• If your actions are motivated by selfish interests rather than God, you are mortgaging tomorrow's joy.

  T. B. Joshua

  Selfish, Joy, Action

  "Selfless Service". Modern Ghana, May 28, 2009.

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• ...if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded.

  Noah Webster

  Selfish, Men, Rights

  Noah Webster (1835). “Instructive and Entertaining Lessons for Youth: With Rules for Reading with Propriety, Illustrated by Examples: Designed for Use in Schools and Families”, p.230

  137 Copy quote

  Show source

• The greatest productive force is human selfishness.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Liberty, Selfishness, Libertarian

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.325, Penguin

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Lust is raw selfishness. It's all about my wants, my needs, my pleasure. Most love songs are actually lust songs.

  Rick Warren

  Song, Lust, Selfishness

  FaceBook post by Pastor Rick Warren from May 30, 2013

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• It indicates a person who has not only good manners but who possesses a sense of balance, a sure mastery of himself, a moral discipline that permits him to subordinate voluntarily his own selfish interest to the wider interests of the society in which he lives. The gentleman, therefore is a cultural person in the noblest sense of the word, if by culture we mean not simply wealth of intellectual knowledge but also the ability to fulfil one's duty and understand one's fellow man by respecting / every principle, every opinion, every faith that is sincerely professed.

  Antonio Gramsci

  Selfish, Mean, Men

  148 Copy quote

• The marketplace obliges men, whether they will or not, in pursuing their own selfish interests, to connect the general good with their own individual success.

  Edmund Burke

  Success, Selfish, Men

  5 Copy quote

• How soon the labor of men would make a paradise of the earth were it not for misgovernment and a diversion of his energies to selfish interests.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Selfish, Men, Energy

  11 Copy quote

• Friendship without self-interest is one of the rare and beautiful things of life.

  James F. Byrnes

  Friendship, Beautiful, Self

  94 Copy quote

• The Buddha's teaching leads us to the realization that we must always strive to harm no sentient being, human or nonhuman, whether or not it is in our selfish interest to do so.

  Norm Phelps

  Buddhist, Selfish, Teaching

  Norm Phelps (2004). “The Great Compassion: Buddhism and Animal Rights”, p.15, Lantern Books

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you look at Washington, you see permanently camped on the banks of the Potomac spread around in concentric circles an army representing thousands of selfish interests. The sole purpose of their presence is to plunder, by hook or crook, the public treasury for the benefit of their particular people or corporations.

  Charley Reese

  Selfish, Army, Circles

  12 Copy quote

• If the people are to be the final tribunal then they must vote for what is right rather than according to their own selfish interests, else we are treading the path of danger.

  Henry Latham Doherty

  Selfish, People, Voting

  Henry Latham Doherty (1923). “Principles and Ideas for Doherty Men: Papers, Addresses and Letters”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a thousandfold by a factor that is insignificant in, say, physics, mathematics or medicine - the special pleading of selfish interests.

  Henry Hazlitt

  Selfish, Men, Medicine

  Henry Hazlitt (2010). “Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics”, p.11, Crown Business

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• People are so docile right now. It is almost as if good government means when the politicians lie to us for our own good, for the public good, and bad government is when politicians lie for their own selfish interests.

  James Bovard

  Selfish, Lying, Mean

  "Talkin' to America" with Aaron Zelman, jpfo.org.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• We cannot forget that we live and have been living for many years in the midst of an empire. We cannot forget that the different provinces of India are gradually coming closer to one another and a new nationality which comprises not only the different provinces but the whole of India is growing up in our midst and we cannot forget that our interests, even our selfish interests, our hopes, our ambitions are indissolubly connected with the interest of the empire.

  Chittaranjan Das

  Growing Up, Selfish, Ambition

  "Collected Works of Deshbandhu" by Manindra Dutta, 1917.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source