Quotessence
Home / Topics / Self Interest Quotes

Self Interest Quotes

Browse 406 quotes about Self Interest.

Related topics

MenPeopleWorldIfsWayNeedsHumansMoralityEconomicsEnlightenedMoralIndividualKnowsMayShouldEconomicThinkingPoliticalValuesActionGovernmentMeanSocialBasesBelieveCapitalismForcePrinciplesVirtueWellsCompanyDesireDoeEthicsFirstsGivingHas BeensHuman NatureInjusticeLeaderNationsRealReasonSelfishness

Self Interest Quotes

“It’s the moment when something happens not just deep among the trees but also in the dark interior of the human heart, for the heart, too, has its night and its wild surges, as strong an instinct for the hunt as a wolf or a stag. The human night is filled with the crouching forms of dreams, desires, vanities, self-interest, mad love, envy, and the thirst for revenge, as the desert night conceals the puma, the hawk and the jackal.”

LoveDesireNightDreamsVanitySelf Interest
Book:Embers
Create image

“Passion comes from feeling like you are a part of something that you believe in, something bigger than yourself. If people do not trust that a company is organized to advance the WHY, then the passion is diluted. Without managed trust, people will show up to do their jobs and they will worry primarily about themselves. This is the root of office politics—people acting within the system for self-gain often at the expense of others, even the company. If a company doesn't manage trust, then those working for it will not trust the company, and self-interest becomes the overwhelming motivation.”

PurposePassionCommunitySelf InterestQuestionOffice PoliticsReviewSelf Gain
Book:Start with Why
Create image

“There is an impulse in moments like this to appeal to self-interest. To say: These horrors you are allowing to happen, they will come to your doorstep one day; to repeat the famous phrase about who they came for first and who they'll come for next. But this appeal cannot, in matter of fact, work. If the people well served by a system that condones such butchery ever truly believed the same butchery could one day be inflicted on them, they'd tear the system down tomorrow. And anyway, by the time such a thing happens, the rest of us will already be dead. No, there is no terrible thing coming for you in some distant future, but know that a terrible thing is happening to you now. You are being asked to kill off a part of you that would otherwise scream in opposition to injustice. You are being asked to dismantle the machinery of a functioning conscience. Who cares if diplomatic expediency prefers you shrug away the sight of dismembered children? Who cares if great distance from the bloodstained middle allows obliviousness? Forget pity, forget even the dead if you must, but at least fight against the theft of your soul.”

WarSoulConscienceInjusticeImperialismPalestineSelf InterestGazaGaza WarFirst They Came For
Book:One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Create image

“Sacrifice of the self is sheer stupidity if sacrifice is not for the self.”

InspirationalWritingSoulSelfPhilosophyWisdomMotivationalQuotesKnowledgeStruggleStupidSpeechAdvantageCharityStupidityToleranceSelfishnessMovieSelf RespectStoryTolerateRhetoricSelf InterestAmit KalantriSelf CenteredAmit Kalantri QuotesPublic SpeakingProverbsCharactersAmit Kalantri WriterAdageNovel WritingBook WritingEssayScriptAdvertisementMovie DialogueScript WritingCatchphrasesAlliterationsSocial ServiceTag LinesScriptwritingCatch LinesSpeechwritingOwnPersonal LossTo Give UpScrifice
Author:Amit Kalantri
Create image

“I begin to see how a post-money society would work in practice. When we are in paid employment, we are exchanging our labour in return for money in order to live within a money-based society, nothing more. Both sides in the labour-salary exchange are motivated by self-interest. But when we volunteer our labour for a cause, for a better world, we are not so much exchanging our labour as investing it directly into the world we want to see. Notes for Utopia: there will be no money when we get there.”

MoneySocietyLabourSalarySelf InterestUtopiaBetter WorldVolunteeringMoneyless
Book:Life As A Kite
Create image

“I belin to see how a post-money society would work in practice. When we are in paid employment, we are exchanging our labour in return for money in order to live within a money-based society, nothing more. Both sides in the labour-salary exchange are motivated by self-interest. But when we volunteer our labour for a cause, for a better world, we are not so much exchanging our labour as investing it directly into the world we want to see. Notes for Utopia: there will be no money when we get there.”

MoneyLabourVolunteerMoney QuotesSalarySelf InterestUtopiaBetter WorldVolunteeringMoneyless
Book:Life As A Kite
Create image

“Darling, I’ve realised I don’t love you. If I loved anyone, it would be you. But I love no one. I’ve come to understand I don’t care about anything except for myself. Any kindness I’ve ever shown has been in my own self-interest. The very existence of other people seems doubtful. I wanted more from life than this. Let’s have a baby.”

LoveLove QuotesLoversSelf InterestBabiesLovelessSelf Interest QuotesLovelessnessLoveless MarriageBaby Making
Book:How to Be Happy
Create image

“If the exchange act may thus be regarded as a creation of society, it is no less true to say that both society and the individual become aware of this only after exchanges have been completed. The work of an individual is, first and foremost, his own individual endeavour, motivated by his own self-interest. It is his personal labour, not the labour of society. But whether or not it conforms with the requirements of the total circulation of goods, of which his labour is necessarily a component part, can be determined only when all the component elements have been compared and the aggregate requirements of that circulation have been completely satisfied.”

IndividualSocietySelf InterestExchangeAggregate
Book:Finance Capital: A study in the latest phase of capitalist development
Create image

“The difference between "can" and "must" is the key to understanding the profound effects of self-interest on reasoning . . . The social psychologist Tom Gilovich studies the cognitive mechanisms of strange beliefs. His simple formulation is that when we WANT to believe something, we ask ourselves, "Can I believe it?" Then, we search for supporting evidence, and if we find even a single piece of pseudo-evidence, we can stop thinking. We now have permission to believe. We have a justification, in case anyone asks. In contrast, when we DON'T want to believe something, we ask ourselves, "Must I believe it?" Then we search for contrary evidence, and if we find a single reason to doubt the claim, we can dismiss it. You only need one key to unlock the handcuffs of "must." Psychologists now have file cabinets full of findings on "motivated reasoning," showing the many tricks people use to reach the conclusions they want to reach.”

DoubtPsychologyEvidenceReasoningBeliefsSelf InterestSocial Psychology
Author:Jonathan Haidt
Create image

“International big business has made revolutions before now to safeguard its interests. At one time it made them … in the name of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Now, with Socialism to fight, it makes them in the name of Law and Order and Sound Finance. Assassination? If an assassination is going to be good for business, then there will be an assassination.”

RevolutionCapitalismBetrayalBankingSpySelf InterestBig BusinessRegime Change
Book:The mask of Dimitrios
Create image

“Speak no ill of the successful black male sellout, for he has achieved the goal of the community that has produced him: he has “made it,” used his skills to attain the status that would be denied him, earned entry at the door of the big house of prosperity. His only flaw is that he agreed to leave the community, its hopes, customs, aspirations, on the porch behind him. It is a matter of expedience as much as morality.”

BetrayalSelf InterestUncle TomSellouts
Book:Pym
Create image

“Gregg: I notice you did not use the word greed in that answer. When many people hear “self-interest,” they think “greed”. So are you suggesting that a Smithian approach actually has nothing to do with greed at all when it comes to self-interest properly understood? Smith: It’s not a matter of greed. It’s a matter of, as Smith says, the individual being fitter than anyone else to take care of himself or herself in terms of knowing what he or she wants and in making judgments about that. And so, knowing that other people are also self-interested, I know what action I take would be hurtful to them. And then I take that into account. In other words, being self-interested is an input to our socializing process. There are many experimental economists and behavioral economists who want to explain that with a utility function so that if I am other-regarding, it’s because I am taking into account your reward as well as mine. Adam Smith says no. Adam Smith is right. It is not in the utility function. That’s the difference between an emphasis on outcomes and process.”

EconomicsGreedSelf InterestAdam Smith
Book:The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Reflections on Faith, Science, and Economics
Create image

“After the lockdown, when markets become less active, the subject of mainstream economics faces another tough ground. There are millions of poor people who do not have work. When lockdown happens, a great many people find resource markets stalled where they used to get income. More than ever, such crises necessitate the flow of resources from the haves to the have-nots. But, frozen goods and resource markets cannot help much, especially the poor and vulnerable people. That is where, pro-social behaviour and beyond-market distribution of resources is necessary. However, mainstream economics treats altruism as ‘impure’. It looks at altruism in the paradigm of pursuing self-interest.”

ScienceReligionGreedCovid 19Self InterestDarwinismSurvival Of The FittestCorona Virus
Book:Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World
Create image

“... his future, had either been sold or laid to waste by his parents' generation, trapping him in a perpetual adolescence that was further heightened by the infantilising unreality of the Internet as it encroached upon, and colonised, real life - 'real life', Tony thought, with bitter air quotes, for late capitalism would admit nothing 'real' beyond the logic of late capitalism itself, having declared self-interest the only universal, and profit motive the only absolute, and deriding everything that did not serve its ends as either a contemptible weakness or a fantasy.”

InternetFutureCapitalismGreedSelf InterestColonisation
Book:Birnam Wood
Create image

“In basic microeconomics textbooks, even when welfare gets attention, it is in the domain of efficient outcomes. Redistribution through taxes is first introduced as a big ‘no go’ domain with concepts of deadweight loss. However, inefficiency out of market behaviour and market outcomes is plainly ignored and overlooked. Approximately, $600 million daily is needed to feed every extremely poor person, yet about $2.75 billion value of food is wasted every day, according to Food and Agriculture Organization. Consequently, 9 million people die every year from hunger while one-third of all food is wasted. This gross inefficiency in economic resources is not captured or discussed. According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, globally, per capita food supply increased from about 2,200 kcal per day in the early 1960s to more than 2,903 kcal per day by 2014. But under capitalism, the market allocates goods including even food to only those who can pay its price. It does not make a difference whether the willingness to pay is less than the price due to ‘preference’ or due to ‘poverty’. Yet, mainstream economics claims consumer sovereignty.”

EconomicsAltruismEquitySelf InterestInefficiencySelfish GeneNeoclassical EconomicsRedistribution
Book:Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World
Create image

“An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which Smith published in 1776, is the most important book ever written about capitalism and its moral ramifications. Though The Wealth of Nations is in good part about commerce, it was not written for businessmen or merchants. A book focused on the analysis of market processes motivated by self-interest, it was written by one of the most admired philosophers of the Enlightenment, a former professor of logic, rhetoric, jurisprudence, and moral philosophy, in order to influence politicians and rouse them to pursue the common good.”

Self InterestWealth Of NationsThe Common Good
Book:The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought
Create image

“Self-centrism creates another problem on the response side. The problem with commercially motivated technological change is that if it does not make good business, the idea does not see its growth. Sanitation and clean water is still a problem in localities where everyone has 4G connection and mobile wallet accounts. Commercially motivated research is more intensely pursued than socially urgent ones. Technological improvements to ease sanitation, bring clean water and achieve recycling are given less attention than telecommunication and digital financial services which are commercially more profitable ventures.”

ReligionValuesMoralityEthicsGreedSelf InterestMarket EconomyProfit Maximization
Book:Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World
Create image

“Education geared to industry demands has also got into the trap of producing commercial technologists for corporations. These corporations are not built for social responsibility in free-market capitalism. Milton Friedman said the biggest and only responsibility of a corporation is to increase shareholders’ wealth. If these corporations do research and find a vaccine eventually that costs $1,000, then those who are not able to afford it would be regarded by mainstream economists as having less willingness to pay. For the poor, it is not a choice, but a helpless situation. But, poor having less budget for essential needs is a problem that we do not start our economics textbooks with.”

ScienceReligionEthicsEconomicsSelf InterestMarket EconomyNeoclassical Economics
Book:Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World
Create image

“In the earlier era, the subject of economics was geared to human needs. Now, the prime emphasis is on market behaviour and market outcomes based on choices under uncertainty and scarcity. The emphasis on choice behaviour subtly and inadvertently makes economics and most of its contents largely irrelevant for poor people.”

EconomicsSelf InterestMarket EconomyInvisible HandSelfish GeneNeoclassical Economics
Book:Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World
Create image

“Today's ideology masquerades as pragmatism with that pragmatism reduced to the simplistic assumption that the basis of human nature is self-interest, a view which discount philanthropy, discredits altruism, with the only motive deserving of trust self-promotion and self-advancement. This so-called pragmatism is wicked and it is doubly so because it is held up as being both realistic and a virtue. Whereas it is shallow, shabby and all too often callous.”

GreedSelf InterestPrivatisation
Book:Keeping On Keeping On
Create image

“The root problem—from Prince Henry to President Trump—has always been the self-interest of racist power. Powerful economic, political, and cultural self-interest—the primitive accumulation of capital in the case of royal Portugal and subsequent slave traders—has been behind racist policies. Powerful and brilliant intellectuals in the tradition of Gomes de Zurara then produced racist ideas to justify the racist policies of their era, to redirect the blame for their era’s racial inequities away from those policies and onto people.”

PowerRacismSelf InterestAntiracismRacist Policies
Book:How to Be an Antiracist
Create image

“In the world as it is, man moves primarily because of self-interest. In the world as it is, the right things are usually done for the wrong reasons, and vice versa. In the world as it is, constructive actions have been reactions to a threat. In the world as it is, a value judgment is rarely, if ever, made on the basis of what is best. Life does not accord us this luxury. Decisions are made on the criteria of alternatives. In the world as it is, "compromise" is not an ugly but a noble word. If the whole free way of life could be summed up in one word it would be "compromise." A free way of life is a constant conflict punctuated by compromises which then serve as a jumping-off point for further conflict, more compromises, more conflict, in the never-ending struggle toward achieving man's highest goals.”

ReactionsCompromiseAlternativesActionsSelf InterestReasonsRationaleCompromisesValue Judgments
Book:Reveille for Radicals
Create image

“Just because you have stolen someone's heart, luckily owned and occupied as a home, doesn't give you the audacity to enforce hurtful policies.”

HomeHurtTakenPolicyHeartbreakWeaknessAdvantageLiesStealingTyrannyCrueltySelfishnessControlCaptureApathySuperiorityDominationStolenSelf InterestStanceAudacityOwnConventionNegative InfluencePoliciesOwnerBad InfluenceStrictnessSelf CentredOwnedCaptivationTaking Advantage Of SomeoneSocial StrataWeaker Vessels
Author:Michael Bassey Johnson
Create image