Not Selfish Quotes

• A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses.

  Oscar Wilde

  Selfish, Flower, Garden

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

  67 Copy quote

  Show source

• Live your life as you see fit. That's not selfish. Selfish is to demand that others live their lives as you see fit.

  Anthony de Mello

  Selfish, Live Your Life, Demand

  24 Copy quote

• Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.

  Eleanor Brown

  Selfish, Empty Vessels, Care

  58 Copy quote

• Human beings are not intrinsically selfish, which isolates us from others. We are essentially social animals who depend on others to meet our needs. We achieve happiness, prosperity and progress through social interaction. Therefore, having a kind and helpful attitude contributes to our own and others' happiness.

  Dalai Lama

  Happiness, Buddhist, Attitude

  10 Copy quote

• True love is not selfish. In time it accustoms itself to anything which secures happiness for its object.

  Sarah Chauncey Woolsey

  Selfish, Love Is, Objects

  Susan Coolidge, Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (2015). “Clover: 4th volume of the "Katy" series.”, p.132, Mondial

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either.

  Erich Fromm

  Selfish, Love You, Greed

  Erich Fromm (2014). “The Erich Fromm Reader: Readings Selected and Edited by Rainer Funk”, p.105, Open Road Media

  85 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's not selfish to give TO yourself as much as you give OF yourself

  Suze Orman

  Selfish, Giving

  4 Copy quote

• Love is not selfish or unkind. Nor is it boastful or disloyal. Love is simply a deep feeling found within the heart that money cannot buy.

  April Haney

  Selfish, Heart, Love Is

  5 Copy quote

• Be not selfish in your doings: pass it on.

  Bob Marley

  Selfish, Doings

  Song: Pass It On, Album: Burnin', 1973

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good travels at a snail's pace. Those who want to do good are not selfish, they are not in a hurry, they know that to impregnate people with good requires a long time.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Selfish, Long, People

  Mahatma Gandhi, Rudrangshu Mukherjee (1993). “The Penguin Gandhi Reader”, p.24, Penguin Books India

  67 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm an egotist, but I'm not selfish. There's a difference. I'm a neurotic, I guess. I can't stop thinking about myself. It isn't that I think myself so important. I simply can't think about anything else, that's all.

  Henry Miller

  Falling In Love, Selfish, Thinking

  "Tropic of Cancer".

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is not selfish to be happy. It is your highest purpose. Your joy is the greatest contribution you can make to life on the planet. A heart at peace with its owner blesses everyone it touches.

  Alan Cohen

  Selfish, Heart, Joy

  15 Copy quote

• Putting yourself first is not selfish. Quite the opposite. You must put your happiness and health first before you can be of help to anyone else.

  Simon Sinek

  Selfish, Opposites, Firsts

  7 Copy quote

• The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.

  Timothy Keller

  Christian, Confidence, Jesus

  Timothy Keller (2008). “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism”, p.179, Penguin

  91 Copy quote

  Show source

• The world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars and the selfish hide in high places.

  Bryant H. McGill

  Selfish, Liars, Lying

  22 Copy quote

• Selfishness, not love, is the actuating motive of the gallant.

  Madame Roland

  Selfish, Love Is, Gallant

  16 Copy quote

• It is not selfish or narcissistic to love yourself. It is your first and foremost responsibility.

  Alan Cohen

  Selfish, Love You, Responsibility

  Alan Cohen (2000). “Dare to Be Yourself”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Casting a spell, in self-defense or in self-interest is not selfish, but positive, life-affirming. You have been given powers, the very same powers that society devalues... What if it comes back tenfold? Well, don't be a fool. Never use your magick to attack the innocent. Then you have nothing to fear... Don't be frivolous or cowardly. If your course is righteous, and your tools ready, go to it.

  Zsuzsanna Budapest

  Selfish, Positive Life, What If

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  78 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Love is the key to the mystery. Love by its very nature is not selfish, but generous. It seeks not its own, but the good of others. The measure of love is not the pleasure it gives-that is the way the world judges it-but the joy and peace it can purchase for others.

  Fulton J. Sheen

  Selfish, Love Is, Keys

  Fulton J. Sheen (2017). “Go to Heaven: A Spiritual Road Map to Eternity”, p.219, Ignatius Press

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• She could not explain or quite understand that it wasn't altogether jealousy she felt, it was rage. And not because she couldn't shop like that or dress like that. It was because that was what girls were supposed to be like. That was what men - people, everybody - thought they should be like. Beautiful, treasured, spoiled, selfish, pea-brained. That was what a girl should be, to be fallen in love with. Then she would become a mother and she'd be all mushily devoted to her babies. Not selfish anymore, but just as pea-brained. Forever.

  Alice Munro

  Love, Beautiful, Girl

  24 Copy quote

• If you're not selfish enough to want to feel good, then you can't connect with the energy that is your Source which does always feel good.

  Esther Hicks

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Self Esteem

  5 Copy quote

• Since the real purpose of meditation is to increase our capacity to help others, taking time each day to meditate is not selfish. We have to manage our time and energy in such a way that we can be of maximum benefit to others, and to do this we need time alone to recover our strength, collect our thoughts, and see things in perspective

  Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

  Strength, Time, Selfish

  Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (2011). “Eight Steps to Happiness: The Buddhist Way of Loving Kindness”, p.213, Tharpa Publications US

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• God is not harsh; He is holy. He is not selfish; He is sovereign. He is not unfeeling; He is all-knowing. Like David, we need to come to know Him, and respect Him; and, like David, we will love Him more.

  Beth Moore

  Selfish, Knowing, Needs

  Beth Moore (2012). “A Heart Like His: Intimate Reflections on the Life of David”, p.144, B&H Publishing Group

  4 Copy quote

  Show source