Where all are selfish, the sage is no better than the fool, and only rather more dangerous.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
Long before Einstein told us that matter is energy, Machiavelli and Hobbes and other modern political philosophers defined man as a lump of matter whose most politically relevant attribute is a form of energy called “self-interestedness.” This was not a portrait of man “warts and all.” It was all wart.
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Journalist, Writer
How much that the world calls selfishness is only generosity with narrow walls—a too exclusive solicitude to maintain a wife in luxury, or make one’s children rich.
—Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823–1911) American Social Reformer, Clergyman
There are too many who reverse both the principles and the practice of the apostle; they become all things to all men, not to serve others, but themselves; and they try all things only to hold fast that which is bad.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Next to the young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
No man will work for your interests unless they are his.
—David Seabury (1885–1960) American Psychologist
I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
If you think only of yourself, if you forget the rights and well-being of others, or, worse still, if you exploit others, ultimately you will lose. You will have no friends who will show concern for your well-being. Moreover, if a tragedy befalls you, instead of feeling concerned, others might even secretly rejoice. By contrast, if an individual is compassionate and altruistic, and has the interests of others in The Mind irrespective of whether that person knows a lot of people, wherever that person moves, he or she will immediately make friends. And when that person faces a tragedy, there will be plenty of people who will come to help.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
Selfishness is one of the qualities apt to inspire love.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
SELFISH, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Modesty and unselfishness – these are virtues which men praise – and pass by.
—Andre Maurois (1885–1967) French Novelist, Biographer
It is not truth, justice, liberty, that men seek; they seek only themselves.—And oh, that they knew how to seek themselves aright!
—Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743–1819) German Philosopher
Be unselfish. That is the first and final commandment for those who would be useful and happy in their usefulness. If you think of yourself only, you cannot develop because you are choking the source of development, which is spiritual expansion through thought for others.
—Charles William Eliot (1834–1926) American Educationalist
Take the selfishness out of this world and there would be more happiness than we should know what to do with.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
There are some tempers wrought up by habitual selfishness to an utter insensibility of what becomes of the fortunes of their fellow-creatures, as if they were not partakers of the same nature or had no lot or connection at all with the species.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
The selfishness must be discovered and understood before it can be removed. It is powerless to remove itself, neither will it pass away of itself. Darkness ceases only when light is introduced; so ignorance can only be dispersed by Knowledge; selfishness by Love.
—James Lane Allen (1849–1925) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Milton has carefully marked, in his Satan, the intense selfishness which would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Lovers never get tired of each other because they are forever talking about themselves.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The world is governed only by self-interest.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Self is ingenious, crooked, and, governed by subtle and snaky desire, admits of endless turnings and qualifications, and the deluded worshippers of self vainly imagine that they can gratify every worldly desire, and at the same time possess the Truth
—James Lane Allen (1849–1925) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
The fondness we have for self furnishes another long rank of prejudices.
—Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English Hymn writer
A wise unselfishness is not a surrender of yourself to the wishes of anyone, but only to the best discoverable course of action.
—David Seabury (1885–1960) American Psychologist
When a man is wrapped up in himself he makes a pretty small package.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Selfishness, when it is punished by the world, is mostly punished because it is connected with egotism.
—Arthur Helps (1813–75) English Dramatist, Essayist
Supreme and abiding self-love is a very dwarfish affection, but a giant evil.
—Richard Cecil
I have given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself.
—Oscar Levant (1906–72) American Musician, Composer, Author, Comedian, Actor
Our infinite obligations to God do not fill our hearts half as much as a petty uneasiness of our own; nor his infinite perfections as much as our smallest wants.
—Hannah More
What we call personality (…) has become the most impersonal thing in the world. Its pale and featureless face appears like a ghost at every corner and in every crowd. … Individualism kills individuality, precisely because individualism has to be an ‘ism’ quite as much as Communism or Calvinism. The economic and ethical school which calls itself individualist ended by threatening the world with the flattest and dullest spread of the commonplace. Men, instead of being themselves, set out to find a self to be: a sort of abstract economic self identified with self-interest. But while the self was that of a man, the self-interest was generally that of a class or a trade or even an empire. So far from really remaining a separate self, the man became part of a communal mass of selfishness.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
If you wish to be miserable, think about yourself; about what you want, what you like, what respect people ought to pay you, what people think of you; and then to you nothing will be pure. You will spoil everything you touch; you will make sin and misery for yourself out of everything God sends you; you will be as wretched as you choose.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
Twin-sister of Religion, Selfishness
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
knowledge is hidden by selfish desire—hidden by this unquenchable fire for self-satisfaction.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
The argument of this book is that we, and all other animals, are machines created by our genes. Like successful Chicago gangsters, our genes have survived, in some cases for millions of years, in a highly competitive world. This entitles us to expect certain qualities in our genes. I shall argue that a predominant quality to be expected in a successful gene is ruthless selfishness. This gene selfishness will usually give rise to selfishness in individual behavior. However, as we shall see, there are special circumstances in which a gene can achieve its own selfish goals best by fostering a limited form of altruism at the level of individual animals. ‘Special’ and ‘limited’ are important words in the last sentence. Much as we might wish to believe otherwise, universal love and the welfare of the species as a whole are concepts that simply do not make evolutionary sense.
—Richard Dawkins (b.1941) British Evolutionary Biologist, Atheist
The moment you think only of yourself, the focus of your whole reality narrows, and because of this narrow focus, uncomfortable things can appear huge and bring you fear and discomfort and a sense of feeling overwhelmed by misery. The moment you think of others with a sense of caring, however, your view widens. Within that wider perspective, your own problems appear to be of little significance, and this makes a big difference.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
It is astonishing how well men wear when they think of no one but themselves.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
The man who lives by himself and for himself is likely to be corrupted by the company he keeps.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst (1842–1933) American Clergyman, Civic Reformer
Show me the man who would go to heaven alone, and I will show you one who will never be admitted there.
—Owen Feltham (1602–1668) English Essayist
Those who are most disinterested, and have the least of selfishness, have best materials for being happy.
—Lydia H. Sigourney (1791–1865) American Poetaster, Author
I seldom made an errand to God for another but I got something for myself.
—Samuel Rutherford (1600–61) Scottish Presbyterian Theologian, Author
That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual. For besides other considerations, everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfill.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are in the sea.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The very heart and root of sin is an independent spirit.—We erect the idol self, and not only wish others to worship, but worship it ourselves.
—Richard Cecil
I would tear out my own heart if it had no better disposition than to love only myself, and laugh at all my neighbors.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
The selfish man suffers more from his selfishness than he from whom that selfishness withholds some important benefit.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
Our gifts and attainments are not only to be light and warmth in our own dwellings, but are to shine through the window, into the dark night, to guide and cheer bewildered travellers on the road.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
He who makes an idol of his self-interest, will often make a martyr of his integrity.
—Lydia H. Sigourney (1791–1865) American Poetaster, Author
Those who live to the future must always appear selfish to those who live to the present.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
If we were not all so excessively interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Self-interest, that leprosy of the age, attacks us from infancy, and we are startled to observe little heads calculate before knowing how to reflect.
—Delphine de Girardin (1804–55) French Novelist, Author
Heroism, magnanimity, and self-denial, in all instances in which they do not spring from a principle of religion, are but splendid altars on which we sacrifice one kind of self-love to another.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist