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
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
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
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
As selfishness and complaint pervert and cloud the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
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
Forgiveness is almost a selfish act because of its immense benefits to the one who forgives.
—Lawana Blackwell (b.1954) American Author of Historical Fiction
The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
I seldom made an errand to God for another but I got something for myself.
—Samuel Rutherford (1600–61) Scottish Theologian, Author
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
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
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
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
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, Author, Commentator
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 selfish man suffers more from his selfishness than he from whom that selfishness withholds some important benefit.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Selfishness at the expense of others’ happiness is demonism.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
The fondness we have for self furnishes another long rank of prejudices.
—Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English Hymn writer
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
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
Modesty and unselfishness – these are virtues which men praise – and pass by.
—Andre Maurois (1885–1967) French Novelist, Biographer
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
Glory built on selfish principles is shame and guilt.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Deliver me, O Lord, from that evil man, myself.
—Thomas Brooks (1608–80) American Songwriter, Composer
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
I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
I have given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself.
—Oscar Levant (1906–72) American Musician, Composer, Author, Comedian, Actor
Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
To be saved is only this,—salvation from our own selfishness.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist
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) English Theologian, Archbishop
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