Selfish Quotes - Page 32

• We are all selfish, scared and stupid.

  Kieran Flanagan

  Stupid, Scared

  "Selfish, Scared and Stupid". Book by Kieran Flanagan, Dan Gregory, 2014.

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• A wise Government seeks to provide the opportunity through which the best of individual achievement can be obtained, while at the same time it seeks to remove such obstruction, such unfairness as springs from selfish human motives.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Wise, Spring, Opportunity

  Franklin D. Roosevelt's Address at San Diego Exposition in San Diego, California, October 2, 1935.

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• I'm not saying I'm going to rule the world, I'm going to change the world. But I guarantee I will spark the brain that will change the world. And that's our job. It's to spark somebody else watching us. We might not be the one, but let's not be selfish. And because we['re] not going to change the world, not talk about how we should change it. I don't know how to change it. But I know if I keep talking about how dirty it is out here, somebody's going to clean it up!

  Tupac Shakur

  Jobs, Dirty, Talking

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• What will a man not do when frantic with love? To what baseness will he not demean himself? What pangs will he not make others suffer, so that he may ease his selfish heart?

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Love, Heart, Men

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1869). “Henry Esmond: And Lovel the Widower”, p.155

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• It seemed that the time would come evolutionarily when humans might have acquired enough knowledge of generalized principles to permit a graduation from class-two (entropically selfish) evolution into class-one (syntropically cooperative) evolution, thereafter making all the right moves for all the right reasons.

  R. Buckminster Fuller

  Moving, Class, Two

  "Critical Path". Book by Buckminster Fuller, p. 246, 1981.

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• Republicans ... are conservatives who think it would be best if we faced the fact that people are no damned good. They think that if we admit that we have selfish, acquisitive natures and then set out to get all we can for ourselves by working hard for it, that things will be better for everyone. They are not insensitive to the poor, but tend to think the poor are impoverished because they won't work. They think there would be fewer of them to feel sorry for if the government did not encourage the proliferation of the least fit among us with welfare programs.

  Andy Rooney

  Sorry, Thinking, Government

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• In order to be able to give a girlfriend the amount of time she deserves, you would need time, and I just can't give her that. So, rather than being selfish or stupid enough to go into a relationship, it's just been easier to be single.

  Ryan Kwanten

  Girlfriend, Stupid, Order

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• Acting can be very selfish and all-consuming.

  Alessandro Nivola

  Acting, Consuming

  "Tribeca Interview: Abigail Breslin and Alessandro Nivola in Janie Jones : Rock God Meets Rock Child". Interview with Cynthia Ellis, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 06, 2017.

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• I think I was righteous. I saw myself as the good guy in my own movie. I didn't get into many fights when I was younger, but when I did, they were righteous. I always thought I was defending something good. I fought for friends who couldn't fight for themselves. I was still being selfish and arrogant, but I was focused on what was fair and unfair.

  Jo Nesbo

  Fighting, Thinking, Guy

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• I think I was a pretty selfish athlete.

  Melanie Roach

  Athlete, Thinking

  "Gold-medal moms have edge on competition" by Jen Brown, www.today.com. August 03, 2010.

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• I've been a pretty selfish mom and a very unselfish athlete for about three years now and it's time to put my family first. It's probably time to move on.

  Melanie Roach

  Mom, Moving, Athlete

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• I always felt too young and selfish to have children of my own.

  Natasha Richardson

  Children, Young, My Own

  "My family and other actors". Interview with Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. April 27, 2003.

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• My mom can't defend herself to the world. She is such an amazing woman, with such an open heart. It's a real hard line, and I crossed it. I took everyone's life story and assumed it would be a great thing to put on screen. I was being selfish and I feel so horrible about it. I feel so guilty.

  Nikki Reed

  Mom, Real, Heart

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• The Clinton paradox: How could a president so intelligent, so compassionate, so public-spirited and so conscious of his place in history act in such a stupid, selfish and self-destructive manner?

  George Stephanopoulos

  Stupid, Intelligent, President

  George Stephanopoulos (1999). “All Too Human: A Political Education”

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• And books that were published in much larger numbers than Selfish, Little are hard to find. And publishers who wanted to publish my last few works have them stuck in limbo while new distribution ideas and legal issues and fears are blown away.

  Peter Sotos

  Book, Ideas, Numbers

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• When we choose to have an abortion, we must do so understanding the full ramifications of what we are doing. Anything less feels to me to be hypocritical, a selfish abnegation of reality and responsibility.

  Ayelet Waldman

  Responsibility, Reality, Abortion

  Ayelet Waldman (2013). “Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace”, p.113, Hachette UK

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• I know I have a successful career, a successful life. If I sit and say, 'Look, I have a comfortable life,' and I... just think about myself, I don't think that would be fair. That would be very selfish. Because everything I do in my life is to benefit my people.

  George Weah

  Successful, Thinking, Careers

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• I suspect that much of our praying to be used is selfish, and underneath it is the sneaking desire to make our mark and be recognized.

  Vance Havner

  Christian, Desire, Praying

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• My work requires acting at its most committed - it demands actors of enormous resilience, but also intelligence and wit. It doesn't work for narcissistic or selfish actors.

  Mike Leigh

  Resilience, Acting, Narcissistic

  "Mike Leigh: 'Creativity is a life-blood for people'". Interview with Miranda Sawyer, www.theguardian.com. April 9, 2011.

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• I've run out of mates that haven't had a baby now. It does make me think of my parents having a family so young and the fact that I've been able to avoid it for so long. It does make me a feel a little bit selfish.

  Nick Moran

  Running, Baby, Thinking

  "Nick Moran: My family values" by Nick McGrath, www.theguardian.com. February 8, 2013.

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• One reason that a truth and reconciliation process is needed for group selection is to return to the simplicity of the original problem and Darwin’s solution. As Ed Wilson and I put it in our recent review article titled “Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology“: Selfishness beats altruism within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups. Everything else is commentary.

  David Sloan Wilson

  Simplicity, Foundation, Groups

  "Truth and Reconciliation for Group Selection II: The Original Problem" by David Sloan Wilson, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 1, 2009.

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• I have a pet peeve about bands that don't play their hits. I think it's kind of selfish.

  Art Alexakis

  Thinking, Play, Pet

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• Most Americans are aware of the brutality and injustice used to maintain the excesses of their selfish consumer society and empire. Yet I suspect...they do not care. They don’t want to see what is done in their name. They do not want to look at the rows of flag-draped coffins, the horribly maimed bodies and faces of veterans, or the human suffering in the blighted and deserted former manufacturing centers. It is too upsetting. Government and corporate censorship is therefore welcomed and appreciated.

  Curtis White

  Government, Names, Upset

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• It takes a lot of selfish time to make music.

  Gwen Stefani

  "It's Good To Be Gwen Stefani". Cosmopolitain Interview, www.cosmopolitan.com. June 09, 2004.

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• The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It's more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted.

  Gretchen Rubin

  Discipline, Generosity, Energy

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