Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonor’d, and unsung.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Those who do not hate their own selfishness and regard themselves as more important than the rest of the world are blind because the truth lies elsewhere
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
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
We are all selfish and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
It is very natural for a young friend and a young lover to think the persons they love have nothing to do but to please them.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
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
The human being who lives only for himself finally reaps nothing but unhappiness. Selfishness corrodes. Unselfishness ennobles, satisfies. Don’t put off the joy derivable from doing helpful, kindly things for others.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor’s.
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
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
One thing is clear to me, that no indulgence of passion destroys the spiritual nature so much as respectable selfishness.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Novelist, Lecturer, Poet
To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless.
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–80) French Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Modesty and unselfishness – these are virtues which men praise – and pass by.
—Andre Maurois (1885–1967) French Novelist, Biographer
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
Know the Self as Lord of the chariot, the body as the chariot itself, the discriminating intellect as the charioteer, and the mind as the reins. The senses, say the wise, are the horses; selfish desires are the roads they travel.
—The Upanishads Sacred Books of Hinduism
I seldom made an errand to God for another but I got something for myself.
—Samuel Rutherford (1600–61) Scottish Presbyterian Theologian, Author
All sympathy not consistent with acknowledged virtue is but disguised selfishness.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Selfishness is never so exquisitely selfish as when it is on its knees … Self turns what would otherwise be a pure and powerful prayer into a weak and ineffective one.
—A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) American Christian Pastor, Preacher, Author, Editor
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
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
Sordid selfishness doth contract and narrow our benevolence, and cause us, like serpents, to infold ourselves within ourselves, and to turn out our stings to all the world besides.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
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
To be saved is only this,—salvation from our own selfishness.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist
Supreme and abiding self-love is a very dwarfish affection, but a giant evil.
—Richard Cecil
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
Selfishness at the expense of others’ happiness is demonism.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
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
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
Selfishness, if but reasonably tempered with wisdom, is not such an evil trait.
—Giovanni Ruffini (1807–81) Italian Writer, Patriot
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
No man will work for your interests unless they are his.
—David Seabury (1885–1960) American Psychologist
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 world is governed only by self-interest.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
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
Deliver me, O Lord, from that evil man, myself.
—Thomas Brooks (1608–80) English Puritan Preacher, Author
Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
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
If your prayer is selfish, the answer will be something that will rebuke your selfishness. You may not recognize it as having come at all, but it is sure to be there.
—William Temple (1881–1944) British Clergyman, Theologian
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
The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are in the sea.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French 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
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
Selfishness is that detestable vice which no one will forgive in others, and no one is without himself.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
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
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
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
Whenever education and refinement grow away from the common people, they are growing toward selfishness, which is the monster evil of the world. That is true cultivation which gives us sympathy with every form of human life, and enables us to work most successfully for its advancement. Refinement that carries us away from our fellowmen is not God’s refinement.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
The essence of true nobility is neglect of self. Let the thought of self pass in, and the beauty of a great action is gone like the bloom from a soiled flower.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
You have no idea how promising the world begins to look once you have decided to have it all for yourself. And how much healthier your decisions are once they become entirely selfish.
—Anita Brookner (1928–2016) English Novelist, Art Historian