Selfish Quotes - Page 24

• The reason I play music is to touch people - for selfish reasons, as well. It feels good to make someone else feel something, whether it's a kiss, a painting, good idea or it's a song.

  Dave Matthews

  Song, Kissing, Play

  "Q&A with Dave Matthews ahead of his 'concert and conversation' with the Dalai Lama". Interview with Marian Liu, www.seattletimes.com. April 11, 2008.

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• This nice and subtle happiness of reading, this joy not chilled by age, this polite and unpunished vice, this selfish, serene life-long intoxication.

  Logan Pearsall Smith

  Nice, Reading, Long

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• The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you into eternity.

  Marcus Garvey

  Integrity, Common, Eternity

  Marcus Garvey (2015). “Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey”, p.6, Ravenio Books

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• the scientist's religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire. It is beyond question closely akin to that which has possessed the religious geniuses of all ages.

  Albert Einstein

  Religious, Reflection, Thinking

  Albert Einstein (2016). “The Albert Einstein Collection: Essays in Humanism, The Theory of Relativity, and The World As I See It”, p.182, Open Road Media

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• I have little left in myself -- I must have you. The world may laugh -- may call me absurd, selfish -- but it does not signify. My very soul demands you: it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Laughing, Soul, Doe

  Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.354, Penguin

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• Among the real heroines in the world who will come into the Church are women who are more concerned with being righteous than with being selfish. These real heroines have true humility, which places a higher value on integrity than on visibility. Remember, it is as wrong to do things just to be seen of women as it is to do things to be seen of men. Great women and men are always more anxious to serve than to have dominion.

  Spencer W. Kimball

  Integrity, Real, Humility

  Maren M. Mouritsen, Spencer W. Kimball, Bringham Young University (1980). “Blueprints for living: perspectives for Latter-day Saint women”

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• Right now, I wish I’d stayed because I want you at my side. That sounds pretty selfish, but I don’t mean it that way. You just never needed me that way; I said it to you once as I was leaving—that you love me, but you don’t need me. You don’t lean. But I admire that about you, and I could use some of your strength right now.

  Ann Aguirre

  Mean, Leaving, Wish

  Ann Aguirre (2011). “Aftermath”, p.98, Penguin

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• It's just as I thought," she said. "I prefer you to every single one of these. Some of these look far too proud of themselves, and some look selfish and cruel. You are unassuming and kind. I intend to ask my father to marry me to you, instead of to the Prince in Ochinstan. Would you mind?

  Diana Wynne Jones

  Father, Mind, Looks

  Diana Wynne Jones (2002). “Wizard's Castle”

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• I like to receive money for my work. But I can pass that up this time. I like to have people know my work is done by me. But I can pass that up. I like to have tenants made happy by my work. But that doesn't matter too much. The only thing that matters, my goal, my reward, my beginning, my end is the work itself. My work done my way. Peter, there's nothing in the world that you can offer me, except this. Offer me this and you can have anything I've got to give. My work done my way. A private, personal, selfish, egotistical motivation. That's the only way I function. That's all I am.

  Ayn Rand

  Motivation, People, Giving

  Ayn Rand (2005). “The Fountainhead”, p.553, Penguin

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• I have always found it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement [Libertarians] in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Thinking, Touching, Movement

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• Too unconcerned to love and too passionless to hate, too detached to be selfish and too lifeless to be unselfish, too indifferent to experience joy and too cold to express sorrow, they are neither dead nor alive; they merely exist.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Hate, Joy, Sorrow

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• I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish… You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Work, Loneliness, Book

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• The commonest weakness of our race is our ability to rationalize our most selfish purposes.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Race, Weakness, Purpose

  Robert A. Heinlein (2012). “The Star Beast”, p.190, Baen Publishing Enterprises

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• I doubt if I have made the best use of all my calamities. Soft, amiable natures they would have refined to saintliness; of strong, evil spirits they would have made demons; as for me, I have only been a woe-struck and selfish woman.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Strong, Evil, Doubt

  Charlotte Bronte (2009). “Villette”, p.80, The Floating Press

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• The truth is I always loved him. From the first time I saw him he was so great. But that time I was hurt. I might have been selfish but I was so hurt. I was afraid I would feel more pain. Now I remember every time I was with Shouji I felt better. You hugged me secretly with your heart, didn't you? Now I want you to embrace me with all that warmth, with all your strength.

  Ai Yazawa

  Hurt, Pain, Heart

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• They don’t think “I care,” “I hurt,” or “I have feelings.” It just seems like I’m always “wrong,” always “selfish,” always “self-centered” and everything else that’s negative and destructive.

  Beatrice Sparks

  Hurt, Thinking, Feelings

  Beatrice Sparks (1990). “Jay's Journal”, p.14, Simon and Schuster

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• When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival.

  Yann Martel

  Empathy, Survival, Life Is

  Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.132, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The opportunity to love a dog and to treat it with kindness is an opportunity for a lost and selfish heart to be redeemed. They are powerless and innocent, and it is how we treat the humblest among us that surely determines the fate of our souls

  Dean Koontz

  Dog, Kindness, Heart

  Dean Koontz (2007). “The Darkest Evening of the Year: A Novel”, p.107, Bantam

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• ‎"Don't bother too much about your feelings. When they are humble, loving, brave, give thanks for them; when they are conceited, selfish, cowardly, ask to have them altered. In neither case are they you, but only a thing that happens to you. What matters is your intentions and your behavior

  C. S. Lewis

  Humble, Conceited, What Matters

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• I immediately felt better about killing him. I’ve never known a Trevor who wasn’t a total douchebag. It’s just one of those names that goes so nicely with selfish, arrogant, malicious behavior—and really, what did I know about this guy? Nothing, except that his name was Trevor and he’d been nabbed in the midst of breaking-and-entering. That was plenty.

  Cherie Priest

  Names, Guy, Douchebags

  Cherie Priest (2011). “Bloodshot”, p.46, Spectra

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• Gods tend to be selfish. Even when they're helpful, they always have their own motives. That's why you have to be careful about trusting them.

  Rick Riordan

  Helpful, Be Careful, Motive

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• Chaos is impatient. It's random. And above all it's selfish. It tears down everything just for the sake of change, feeding on itself in constant hunger. But Chaos can also be appealing. It tempts you to believe that nothing matters except what you want.

  Rick Riordan

  Believe, Tears, Want

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• Unconditional love. That’s what he wants to give her and what he wants from her. People should give without wanting anything in return. All other giving is selfish. But he is being selfish a little, isn’t he, by wanting her to love him in return? He hopes that she loves him in return. Is it possible for a person to love without wanting love back? Is anything so pure? Or is love, by its nature, a reciprocity, like oceans and clouds, an evaporating of seawater and a replenishing of rain?

  Alan Lightman

  Rain, Ocean, Unconditional Love

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• The money power preys on the nation in times of peace, and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Money, Adversity, Light

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• The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation. At the head is a small group of banking houses... This little coterie...runs our government for their own selfish ends. It operates under cover of a self-created screen...seizes...our executive officers...legislative bodies...schools... courts...newspapers and every agency created for the public protection.

  John Francis Hylan

  Running, Real, School

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