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Altruism Quotes

Browse 595 quotes about Altruism.

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Altruism Quotes

“The real warriors in this world are the ones that see the details of another's soul. They see the transparency behind walls people put up. They stand on the battlefield of life and expose their heart's transparency, so other's can finish the day with hope. They are the sensitive souls that understand that before they could be a light they first had to feel the burn.”

InspirationHopeInspiringSeeingListeningCharityHearingSensitiveLeadersAltruismTransparencyTenderRawnessDisciplesGiversHealersOpenessHealing OthersSpiritual WarriorsDeeply Felt
Author:Shannon L. Alder
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“I walked through centuries after centuries in the bodily vessels of countless monks and philosophers, and still my work is not done - it is far from done. I still have a long way to go with my heart bleeding in agony and my feet burning and trembling in tiredness, but still I shall not stop till every single human on earth realizes in the very core of their being that they are humans above everything else, and to achieve this, if I have to go through the heartache of loneliness and the mortal misery of social indifference and mockery over and over again in countless more lives to come, I shall most willingly do so.”

HumanitarianAltruismMessiahServing HumanitySaintsSainthoodService To MankindInspiring LeadersSaint Quotes
Book:Saint of The Sapiens
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“We can learn from the grass, tiny fragile blades that somehow manage to push through the cracks in the cement of the sidewalk. We can learn from water, wearing down mountains into sand, from little droplets becoming floods, oceans, tidal waves. We can learn from all upheavals from struggles for justice because they only seem inevitable in hindsight-- while they are happening they feel grueling if not impossible. We can learn from Elie Wiesel, who shared his bread in the concentration camp so more people could eat some instead of hording it so he could eat fully.”

JusticeStruggleFlowLearnAltruismGrowHindsightPushResistance Making
Author:Shellen Lubin
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“Mission over Recognition (The Sonnet) Let me show you what is action without expectation! What is it to do your duty, without regard for recognition! Quite often I lose count of my works, Yet I've never had a fancy book launch. I write in silence, I release in silence, I have no relation to praise and applause. I am the peak of humanitarian literature, All without an ounce of support or award. I am not a writer, I am world reformer, My first concern is an integrated world. Whatever happens next, know that it had nothing to do with the making of a mission. It's easy to bask in the glory of the sun, not so much to fuel solar combustion.”

HumanitarianService Of HumanityAltruismSocial WorkSelfless ServiceSocial WorkerHumanitarian AidHumanitarian MissionWorld Builder
Book:Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets
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“Avec quelque spontanéité que nous obéissions à la voix qui nous dicte cette abnégation, nous sentons bien qu'elle nous parle sur un ton impératif qui n'est pas celui de l'instinct. C'est pourquoi, quoiqu'elle se fasse entendre à l'intérieur de nos consciences, nous ne pouvons sans contradiction la regarder comme nôtre. Mais nous l'aliénons, comme nous faisons pour nos sensations; nous la projetons au dehors, nous la rapportons à un être que nous concevons comme extérieur et supérieur à nous, puisqu'il nous commande et que nous nous conformons à ses injonctions. Naturellement, tout ce qui nous paraît venir de la même origine participe au même caractère. C'est ainsi que nous avons été nécessités à imaginer un monde au-dessus de celui-ci et à le peupler de réalités d'une autre nature.”

AltruismAbnegationSocial NeedsSelf Renunciation
Book:Le Suicide
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“I could doubt the value of my books as much as many do, except that, as a researcher and very curious person, I do read a lot too, and can clearly see the difference in value between what I do and what others do. I have no doubt that my books have much more value than nearly all others out there, and it wouldn't make sense for me to be an author if I couldn't see that, or if I saw the opposite, as I believe that, if we're not upgrading mankind, we're just making it lost and vulnerable to the claws of ignorance.”

WritingKindnessResearchAuthorWriterWritersAltruismAuthorsAuthorshipFreemasonryIlluminatiPositivismWarm HeartedRosicrucianismSecret SocietiesDaniel Marques
Author:Robin Sacredfire
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“People who are depressed at the thought that all our motives are selfish are [confused]. They have mixed up ultimate causation (why something evolved by natural selection) with proximate causation (how the entity works here and now). [A] good way to understand the logic of natural selection is to imagine that genes are agents with selfish motives. [T]he genes have metaphorical motives — making copies of themselves — and the organisms they design have real motives. But they are not the same motives. Sometimes the most selfish thing a gene can do is wire unselfish motives into a human brain — heartfelt, unstinting, deep-in-the-marrow unselfishness. The love of children (who carry one's genes into posterity), a faithful spouse (whose genetic fate is identical to one's own), and friends and allies (who trust you if you're trustworthy) can be bottomless and unimpeachable as far as we humans are concerned (proximate level), even if it is metaphorically self-serving as far as the genes are concerned (ultimate level). Combine this with the common misconception that the genes are a kind of essence or core of the person, and you get a mongrel of Dawkins and Freud: the idea that the metaphorical motives of the genes are the deep, unconscious, ulterior motives of the person. That is an error.”

EvolutionSelfishnessAltruismEvolutionary PsychologyEgoismNatural SelectionSelfish GeneSelfish Gene TheoryProximate CauseGene Centered EvolutionGene Centered Natural SelectionUltimate Cause
Book:The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
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“Making the choice to exercise compassion is an expression of Love for Humanity and Life itself.”

LoveLife LessonsSpiritualityHopeExistenceCompassionWisdom QuotesMindfulnessSpiritual GrowthSpiritual WisdomAltruismHumanity And SocietySpiritual DevelopmentSpiritual InsightsMindful LivingMaking ChoicesNew Year S ResolutionsFaith In HumanityFaith In LoveAgape LoveCommitment And AttitudeNonviolent Conflict ResolutionDigital ArtPostered Poetics By AberjhaniMindful BeingChoosing Your Path In LifeCompassionate HeartChoosing To LoveContemplation Of LifePracticing FaithCompassion Saves LivesPracticing PeaceQuotation ArtCompassionate ActionCompassionate PeopleDuty Of LifeMaking Wise ChoicesNonviolent JahidPhilosophical WisdomCompassion NetworkDuty Of CarePracticing Love
Book:Splendid Literarium: A Treasury of Stories, Aphorisms, Poems, and Essays
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“Hardin, G. (1982). "Discriminating Altruisms". Zygon. 17 (2): 163–186. "Universalism" is altruism practiced "without discrimination" of kinship, acquaintanceship, shared values, or propinquity in time or space… To people who accept the idea of biological evolution from amoeba to man, the vision of social evolution from egoism to universalism may seem plausible. In fact, however, the last step is impossible… Let us see why. In imagination, picture a world in which social evolution has gone no further than egoism or individualism. When familialism appears on the scene, what accounts for its persistence? It must be that the costs of the sacrifices individuals make for their relatives are more than paid for by the gains realized through family solidarity... The argument that accounts for the step to familialism serves equally well for each succeeding step--except for the last. Why the difference? Because the One World created by universalism has--by definition--no competitive base to support it… [Universalism] cannot survive in competition with discrimination." … "[W]e must not forget that for three billion years; biological evolution has been powered by discrimination. Even mere survival in the absence of evolutionary change depends on discrimination. If universalists now have their way, discrimination will be abandoned. Even the most modest impulse toward conservatism should cause us to question the wisdom of abandoning a principle that has worked so well for billions of years. It is a tragic irony that discrimination has produced a species (homo sapiens) that now proposes to abandon the principle responsible for its rise to greatness." It is to the advantage of non-Europeans, virtually all of whom retain their cohesion as distinctive, discriminating groups, to exploit the economic wealth and social order of the West, benefits many demonstrably cannot create for themselves. When this cohesive drive is placed in competition with self-sacrificing Western altruism, there can be only one outcome. In the near term, Europeans will be displaced by groups acting in their own self-interest. In the long run, biological destruction awaits us. Since those who displace us do not, by definition, maintain our moral standards -- for if they did, they would not be replacing us -- our flawed moral system will vanish with us.”

ImmigrationAltruismKin SelectionGroup EvolutionGreat Replacement
Author:Garrett Hardin
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“Human tool-makers always make tools that will help us get what we want, and what we want hasn't changed for thousands of years because as far as we can tell the human template hasn't changed either. We still want the purse that will always be filled with gold, and the Fountain of Youth. We want the table that will cover itself with delicious food whenever we say the word, and that will be cleaned up afterwards by invisible servants. We want the Seven-League Boots so we can travel very quickly, and the Hat of Darkness so we can snoop on other people without being seen. We want the weapon that will never miss, and the castle that will keep us safe. We want excitement and adventure; we want routine and security. We want to have a large number of sexually attractive partners, and we also want those we love to love us in return, and be utterly faithful to us. We want cute, smart children who will treat us with the respect we deserve. We want to be surrounded by music, and by ravishing scents and attractive visual objects. We don't want to be too hot or too cold. We want to dance. We want to speak with the animals. We want to be envied. We want to be immortal. We want to be gods. But in addition, we want wisdom and justice. We want hope. We want to be good.”

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Book:In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination
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“If it doesn't cost you anything to give, it probably won't mean anything to receive; the best gifts carry a piece of the giver's heart.”

LoveFriendshipSacrificeGenerosityAltruism
Book:The Frictionless Life: 25 Essays on Character, Virtue, and the Art of Being Unshakable: Stop Chasing the Hustle. Start Building a Soul.
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“Unwrite Me, You Cannot (Sonnet 1949) I've written my life on the fabric of time, no matter how much you try, you cannot unwrite me. My childhood friends are now parents to children, while I stand alone as the keeper of humanity. Even the woman I once dreamt a life with, is now a mother, yet my struggle continues for eternity. May they all have a full and flourishing life, but mine is to die as the lampbearer of liberty. I took the road less travelled, of my own accord, so the marginalized could have some tranquility. There's nothing groundbreaking in a life of comfort, we break ground by being antidote to animosity. I've written my life on the fabric of time, try all you like, unwrite me, you cannot. You can pin me to the ground or on the wall, but unsee, unhear, unwrite me, you cannot.”

SacrificeHumanitarianActivismService Of HumanityActivistAltruismHumanitarianismSocial WorkSocial Reformer
Book:Azad Earth Army: When The World Cries Blood
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“[I]t takes so little effort and money to get rid of malaria, to bring in clean water, to give people a chance at an education. When you don't have hope, that's when people start to do weird, horrible, violent things. That's at the bottom of it. It's just a question of prioritizing. The funds are there." (The Power of One: Belief.net Interview; July 2005)”

HopeEducationViolenceDespairTerrorismActivismAltruismHopelessnessClean WaterMalariaForeign AidSanitary Conditions
Author:Susan Sarandon
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