Selfish Quotes - Page 19

• Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.

  John Adams

  Suicide, Passion, Simple

  Letter to John Taylor, 15 Apr. 1814

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• Your unhappiness doesn't help anyone else - and in fact, as I mentioned in another answer, happy people are more altruistically inclined. So happiness is not a selfish goal.

  Gretchen Rubin

  People, Goal, Answers

  "Are You Happy Now?". Chat with readers, www.slate.com. January 15, 2009.

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• I think ultimately, people are selfish in that department [blues], in a good way - the reason we're attracted to art is because it somehow reflects us. And I think, ultimately, we're a tribal people by nature. We're not individualistic. We almost like to hear that there's other people in a worse state than us. Sometimes even more than we like hearing there are people in better states than us.

  Glen Hansard

  Art, Thinking, People

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I do enjoy my own company. I cannot imagine anybody entertaining me more than I do. If it sounds selfish, I don't care. I made it a religion almost.

  Manolo Blahnik

  Sound, Care, Imagine

  Interview with Tim Blanks, www.interviewmagazine.com. February 13, 2013.

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• To join two things together there must be nothing between them or there cannot be a perfect fusion. Now realize that this is how God wants our soul to be, without any selfish love of ourselves or of others in between, just as God loves us without anything in between.

  St. Catherine of Siena

  Two, Perfect, Soul

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• Be warned that if you wish, as I do, to build a society in which individuals cooperate generously and unselfishly towards a common good, you can expect little help from biological nature. Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.

  Richard Dawkins

  Generosity, Trying, Wish

  Richard Dawkins (2016). “The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition”, p.25, Oxford University Press

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• I have repeatedly stressed that the selfish impulses of man constitute a much less historic danger than his integrative tendencies. To put it in the simplest way: the individual who indulges in an excess of aggressive self-assertiveness incurs the penalties of society-he outlaws himself, he contracts out of the hierarchy. The true believer, on the other hand, becomes more closely knit into it; he enters the womb of his church, or party, or whatever the social holon to which he surrenders his identity.

  Arthur Koestler

  Party, Men, Hands

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• If one's cause is supported by sound reasoning, there is no point in using violence. It is those who have no motive other than selfish desire and who cannot achieve their goal through logical reasoning who rely on force.

  Dalai Lama

  Logical Reasoning, Goal, Desire

  Dalai Lama, Anne Benson, Fabien Ouaki (2016). “Imagine All the People: A Conversation with the Dalai Lama on Money, Politics, and Life As It Could Be”, p.127, Simon and Schuster

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• A picture of human life such as a great artist can give, surprises even the trivial and the selfish into that attention to what is apart from themselves, which may be called the raw material of moral sentiment.

  George Eliot

  Artist, Giving, Raw Materials

  George Eliot (2016). “The Essays of George Eliot: Top Novelist Focus”, p.98, 谷月社

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• There are three kinds of love;
  unselfish, mutual, and selfish.
  The unselfish love is of the highest kind;
  The lover only minds the welfare of the beloved and does not care for his own sufferings.
  In mutual love the lover not only wants the happiness of his beloved;
  but has an eye towards his own happiness also. It is middling.
  The selfish love is the lowest. It only looks towards its own happiness,
  no matter whether the beloved suffers weal or woe.

  Ramakrishna

  Eye, Love Is, Mind

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• We have the power to defy the selfish genes of our birth and, if necessary, the selfish memes of our indoctrination. We can even discuss ways of deliberately cultivating and nurturing pure, disinterested altruism - something that has no place in nature, something that has never existed before in the whole history of the world. We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.

  Richard Dawkins

  Rebel, Machines, World

  "The Selfish Gene". Book by Richard Dawkins, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1976.

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• Christians and Jews go after those who have access to raw materials but who prevent access to them. Oil is the best example. The US and its allies are constantly intervening in countries where they don't belong only to defend their prosperity. We aren't fighting because we are greedy and selfish, rather we are fighting for values and morals.

  Abdul Sattar Abu Risha

  Christian, Country, Fighting

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• The perception of the West as mostly a "knight of democracy" has been replaced with the disappointed belief that pragmatism, often cynical and selfish, lies at the core of Western policies. For many Russians it was a grave disillusion, a crushing of ideals.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Crush, Lying, Democracies Have

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Improvisation has been with me since I was a kid, and, taking a selfish pleasure from that, I just thought, "What the hell. It might as well be something other people enjoy."

  Jamie Lidell

  Kids, People, Might

  Source: www.believermag.com

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• money appears to motivate only our interest in ourselves, making us selfish and self-centered...Money makes people feel self-sufficient, which also means they don't need or care about others; it's each man for himself

  Margaret Heffernan

  Mean, Men, People

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• I know too much; I've seen people at their worst, at their most desperate and selfish, and this knowledge makes me wary. So I am learning to pretend, to smile, to nod, to display empathy I do not feel. I am learning to pass, to look like everyone else, even though I feel broken inside.

  Christina Baker Kline

  Broken Inside, People, Empathy

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• I think perfect love is any time you love unconditionally, without selfish intent, without concern for personal gain.

  Erin McCarthy

  Love Is, Thinking, Perfect

  Erin McCarthy (2005). “The Pregnancy Test”, p.108, Kensington Books

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• My co-stars call me selfish. They say you are only interested in yourself and what you are only interested is yourself and what you are doing in front of the camera. I reply, I can't help it; it's what got me where I am.

  Kareena Kapoor

  Stars, Cameras, Helping

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• Marriage is a mystery and part of it is just being kind to each other, not being selfish.

  Aisha Tyler

  Be Kind, Just Being, Mystery

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• I do feel like the world is a better and happier place now that my son is here. That's so cliche, but it's true. I just have a new perspective; I'm more driven. Also, the thing that stands out to me is that I'm not as selfish. Before you have a child, you're doing everything for yourself. But now it's about what's best for him, and I'm enjoying that shift.

  Tia Mowry

  Children, Son, Perspective

  "Tia and Tamera Dish About Their TV Show, Motherhood, and Taking Over the World". Interview with Phoebe Robinson, www.glamour.com. July 14, 2013.

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• If your selfish goal will be useful to humanity, then let your selfish goal be triumphant!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Goal, Humanity, Triumphant

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• I don't want to have kids and so I am not going to have kids. People who want kids are going to have kids. I'm doing what I want to do and people who want kids are doing what they want to do. What about this scenario makes me selfish?

  Jen Kirkman

  Kids, People, Want

  Jen Kirkman (2014). “I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids”, p.101, Simon and Schuster

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• Plato assumes somehow that government is a way in which you put unselfish and ungreedy men in charge of selfish and greedy men. But government is an institution whereby the people who have the greatest drive to get power over their fellow men, get in a position of controlling them. Look at the record of government. Where are these philosopher kings that Plato supposedly was trying to develop?

  Milton Friedman

  Kings, Plato, Men

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• What you learn about yourself is that you continue to see that you're selfish. It's so easy, in our Laodicean culture with all the different things that grab our minds that aren't of eternal value, to let those tentacles wrap themselves around your heart. That's one of the reasons why we love going overseas. It helps us to break free of those things. We've been on all of these trips, but it's easy to slide back into the selfishness of life. That's what we find out about ourselves.

  Aaron Kampman

  Heart, Mind, Different

  "Jacksonville Jaguars defensive tackle Aaron Kampman on his faith, his recent trip to El Salvador and the NFL lockout". Interview with Chad Bonham, www.beliefnet.com.

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• I just try to find ways to love the people that I'm around. It's hard sometimes because I'm selfish and I want to focus inwardly but when I can fight against that and look at other people's needs, it's really a stark contrast to what people are used to in such a selfish environment.

  Matt Diaz

  Fighting, People, Focus

  Source: www.beliefnet.com

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