Selfishness Quotes - Page 7

• It is in fact the height of selfishness to merely consume what others create and to retreat into a shell of limited goals and immediate pleasures.

  Robert Greene

  Selfish, Creating, Goal

  Robert Greene (2012). “Mastery”, p.303, Profile Books

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• Go to the cross of Christ, all you that want to be delivered from the power of selfishness.

  J. C. Ryle

  Want, Christ, Crosses

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• Forgiveness is almost a selfish act because of its immense benefits to the one who forgives.

  Lawana Blackwell

  Relationship, Forgiveness, Selfish

  Lawana Blackwell (2008). “The Dowry of Miss Lydia Clark (The Gresham Chronicles Book #3)”, p.433, Baker Books

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• Those who live to the future must always appear selfish to those who live to the present.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Time, Selfish, Future

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.502, Library of America

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• We are all making a crown for Jesus out of these daily lives of ours, either a crown of golden, divine love, studded with gems of sacrifice and adoration, or a thorny crown, filled with the cruel briars of unbelief, or selfishness, and sin.

  Aimee Semple McPherson

  Jesus, Selfish, Sacrifice

  Aimee Semple McPherson (2009). “This is That: Personal Experiences Sermons and Writings of Aimee Semple McPherson”, p.573, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Selfishness comes from poverty in the heart, from the belief that love is not abundant.

  Miguel Angel Ruiz

  Selfish, Heart, Love Is

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• The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.

  Eric Hoffer

  Vanity, Stupidity, Hardest

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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• The myth of hell represents all the meanness, all the revenge, all the selfishness, all the cruelty, all the hatred, all the infamy of which the heart of man is capable.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Revenge, Heart, Men

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• The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless; it is not loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends; but is destructive only out of hatred and selfishness.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hatred, Radicalism, Politics

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays: First and Second Series”, p.376, Library of America

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• It is to the credit of human nature that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Hate, Play, Credit

  Nathaniel Hawthorne (2016). “Nathaniel Hawthorne: Collected Novels: Scarlet Letter / House of Seven Gables / Blithedale Romance / Fanshawe / Marble Faun: Library of America #10”, p.300, Library of America

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• I am probably the most selfish man you will ever meet in your life. No one gets the satisfaction or the joy that I get out of seeing kids realize there is hope.

  Jerry Lewis

  Hope, Selfish, Kids

  "Emmy honors Jerry Lewis for charity work". www.today.com. September 12, 2005.

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• Love is the most ethically consistent experience, because selfishness and altruism no longer seem opposed or in conflict.

  Peter Breggin

  Love You, Love Is, Conflict

  Peter R. Breggin, M.D. (2015). “Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the "New Psychiatry"”, p.499, St. Martin's Griffin

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• ...Good leaders wait to be called and they give up their power when they are no longer needed. Selfish men and fools put themselves first and keep their power until someone throws them out. It is no good to have a way where selfish men and fools fight with each other to be leaders, while the good ones watch.

  Kent Nerburn

  Giving Up, Selfish, Fighting

  Kent Nerburn (2010). “Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder”, p.204, New World Library

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• Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God: for it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and selfishness that have chilled his faith.

  Thomas Merton

  Selfish, Believe, Men

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• The act of love . . . is a confession. Selfishness screams aloud, vanity shows off, or else true generosity reveals itself.

  Albert Camus

  Love, Selfish, Vanity

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Fall”, p.65, Vintage

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• A liking for truth at any cost is a passion that spares nothing and that nothing resists. It's a vice, at times a comfort, or a selfishness.

  Albert Camus

  Selfish, Passion, Comfort

  Albert Camus (1960). “Collected fiction”

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• Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equalled the carnage perpetrated by disciples of altruism.

  Ayn Rand

  Selfish, Names, History

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand”

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• Why is it immoral for you to desire, but moral for others to do so? Why is it immoral to produce a value and keep it, but moral to give it away? And if it is not moral for you to keep a value, why is it moral for others to accept it? If you are selfless and virtuous when you give it, are they not selfish and vicious when they take it?

  Ayn Rand

  Selfish, Giving, Desire

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.31, Penguin

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• When a teacher of the future comes to point out to the youth of America how the highest rewards of intellect and devotion can be gained, he may say to them, not by subtlety and intrigue; not by wire pulling and demagoguery; not by the arts of popularity; not by skill and shiftiness in following expediency; but by being firm in devotion to the principles of manhood and the application of morals and the courage of righteousness in the public life of our country; by being a man without guile and without fear, without selfishness, and with devotion to duty, devotion to his country.

  Elihu Root

  Country, Teacher, Courage

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• The world today speaks a great deal about love, and it is sought by many. But the pure love of Christ differs greatly from what the world thinks of love. Charity never seeks selfish gratification. The pure love of Christ seeks only the eternal growth and joy of others.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Selfish, Thinking, Joy

  Ezra Taft Benson (1988). “The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson”, Bookcraft Pubs

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• I must fight with my weapons. Not his. Not selfishness and brutality and shame and resentment.

  John Fowles

  Fighting, Brutality, Weapons

  John Fowles (1980). “The collector”, Dell Pub Co

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• Absence of gratitude is the mark of the narrow, uneducated mind. It bespeaks a lack of knowledge and the ignorance of self-sufficiency. It expresses itself in ugly egotism and frequently in wanton mischief. We have seen our beaches, our parks, our forests littered with ugly refuse by those who evidently have no appreciation for their beauty. I have driven through thousands of acres of blackened land scourged by a fire evidently set by a careless smoker whose only concern had been the selfish pleasure gained from a cigarette.

  Gordon B. Hinckley

  Beach, Gratitude, Appreciation

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• In recent years, many seem to have spent their lives protesting. Perhaps they have felt to do this because they have felt repressed or wished to bring about change or have acted out of selfish reasons, thinking that if they tore the house down they might end up with a shingle.

  James E. Faust

  Change, Selfish, Thinking

  James E. Faust (1990). “Reach Up for the Light”, Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company

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• It's funny. I'm attracted to things that don't have any impact on life. People say I've done a great thing for women. I don't think I have. People say I've given people courage. That makes me feel good, but I don't see how I do that. I think my running is a selfish thing. But it provides the challenge that allows me to feel good about myself. How can I expect to do well in other activities if I don't feel good about myself?

  Joan Benoit

  Running, Selfish, Thinking

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• Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live; it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. And unselfishness is letting other people's lives alone, not interfering with them. Selfishness always aims at uniformity of type. Unselfishness recognizes infinite variety of type as a delightful thing, accepts it, acquiesces in it, enjoys it.

  Oscar Wilde

  Selfish, People, Wish

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.285, University of Chicago Press

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