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Self Quotes

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Self Quotes

“By dismantling the narrow politics of racial identity and selective self-interest, by going beyond 'black' and 'white,' we may construct new values, new institutions and new visions of an America beyond traditional racial categories and racial oppression.”

MaySelfAmericaValuesBlackInterestWhiteVisionIdentityInstitutionsTraditionalOppressionCategoriesBlack And WhiteConstructsSelf InterestSelectiveNew VisionRacial Identity
Book:Beyond Black and White: Transforming African-American Politics
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“We are angry about paying the highest income taxes and property taxes in the nation and getting less and less for it. We are angry about our incompetent, dysfunctional government that pays no attention to the desires of the people. We are angry about the cesspool of corruption and conflicts of interests and self-dealing that is Albany.”

PeopleSelfGovernmentDesireNationsInterestPayAttentionConflictTaxesHighestAngryPropertyCorruptionIncomeIncome TaxIncompetentConflict Of InterestAlbanyProperty Taxes
Author:Carl Paladino
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“If anyone feels offended by my words, I would respond that I speak them with affection and with the best of intentions, quite apart from any personal interest or political ideology. My words are not those of a foe or an opponent. I am interested only in helping those who are in thrall to an individualistic, indifferent and self-centred mentality to be freed from those unworthy chains and to attain a way of living and thinking which is more humane, noble and fruitful, and which will bring dignity to their presence on this earth.”

IfsThinkingWayFeelsSelfHelpingEarthPoliticalSpeakInterestDignityIntentionAffectionNobleIdeologyChainsOpponentsMentalityIndifferentOffendedFoeHumaneUnworthyPolitical IdeologyPersonal InterestIndividualistic
Book:The Joy of the Gospel
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“The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way.”

WorldWaySelfGovernmentRunningOrderIndividualInterestTheoryIndustryCivilizationAchievementCapitalismConstructsFree MarketSelf InterestAutomobileBureaucratsGreat AchievementAutomobile Industry
Author:Milton Friedman
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“When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apart from us to live for. All forms of dedication, devotion, loyalty and self-surrender are in essence a desperate clinging to something which might give worth and meaning to our futile, spoiled lives.”

NeedsGivingSelfSeemsMightFormIndividualInterestSocietyEssenceLoyaltySurrenderDevotionDesperateDedicationWorth LivingSpoiledClingingProspects
Book:The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
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“What I mean by living to one's-self is living in the world, as in it, not of it: it is as if no one know there was such a person, and you wished no one to know it: it is to be a silent spectator of the mighty scene of things, not an object of attention or curiosity in it; to take a thoughtful, anxious interest in what is passing in the world, but not to feel the slightest inclination to make or meddle with it.”

IfsKnowsWorldFeelsMeanPersonsSelfInterestAttentionObjectsSceneSilentCuriosityPassingPassingsThoughtfulAnxiousInclinationSpectators
Book:Table-talk: Or Original Essays
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“The continuous disasters of man's history are mainly due to his excessive capacity and urge to become identified with a tribe, nation, church or cause, and to espouse its credo uncritically and enthusiastically, even if its tenets are contrary to reason, devoid of self-interest and detrimental to the claims of self-preservation.We are thus driven to the unfashionable conclusion that the trouble with our species is not an excess of aggression, but an excess capacity for fanatical devotion.”

IfsMenSelfReasonNationsCausesInterestChurchTroubleCapacityClaimsSpeciesDuesDrivenContraryDisasterDevotionConclusionUrgesExcessAggressionTribesPreservationSelf InterestSelf PreservationDetrimentalCredo
Author:Arthur Koestler
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“Self-interest and mutual interest are inextricably linked. National interests can best be advanced through collective action, ... Calculate not just the human misery of the poor themselves. Calculate our loss: The aid, the lost opportunity to trade, the short-term consequences of the multiple conflicts; the long-term consequences on the attitude to the wealthy world of injustice and abject deprivation amongst the poor.”

WorldHumansLongSelfActionOpportunityLostTermInterestLossPoorAttitudeConflictConsequenceTradeMiseryInjusticeAidsLong TermCollectivesMutualWealthyMultipleLinkedShort TermSelf InterestDeprivationNational InterestsCollective ActionLost OpportunityMutual Interest
Author:Tony Blair
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“If sophistication is a matter of being in control of our primary reactions, we may now be sophisticated. At least we shall be fairly confident of ourselves and may, with any luck, be confident of others. Our object will be to enjoy our selves. But to make sure that our names are permanently on the cast list, it will be advisable to be of interest to others. This aim must never be confused with the desire to be popular.”

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Author:Quentin Crisp
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“We are driven by self-interest, it’s necessary to survive. But we need wise self-interest that is generous and co-operative, taking others’ interests into account. Co-operation comes from friendship, friendship comes from trust, and trust comes from kind-heartedness. Once you have a genuine sense of concern for others, there’s no room for cheating, bullying or exploitation.”

NeedsKindSelfInterestRoomsWiseTrustConcernAccountsDrivenGenuineOperationsGenerousCheatingBullyingExploitationSelf InterestConcern For Others
Author:Dalai Lama
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“The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley of ties that bound man to his "natural superiors," and left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous "cash payment.”

MenEndsSelfHandsLeftInterestNaturalRelationBoundsSuperiorsNakedTiesCashExploitationTornPaymentSelf InterestBourgeoisieCallousManifestosCommunist ManifestoIdyllicUpper HandNexus
Book:Marx: Selected Writings
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“It's important that we recognize how extreme the Republicans are in almost every case and how against our self-interest it is to vote for them whether or not we are disappointed with the current crew. At least they believe in the Constitution. At least they have an idea of economic justice. The Republicans are devoted to creating more rich folks.”

BelieveImportantIdeasSelfInterestJusticeCasesRichEconomicRepublicanCreatingVoteConstitutionFolksCurrentsExtremesDisappointedDevotedCrewSelf InterestEconomic Justice
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“Iconography becomes even more revealing when processes or concepts, rather than objects, must be depicted for the constraint of a definite "thing" cedes directly to the imagination. How can we draw "evolution" or "social organization," not to mention the more mundane "digestion" or "self-interest," without portraying more of a mental structure than a physical reality? If we wish to trace the history of ideas, iconography becomes a candid camera trained upon the scholar's mind.”

IfsMindIdeasSelfRealityWishSocialProcessInterestImaginationObjectsEvolutionDrawsConceptsOrganizationCamerasStructureScholarDefiniteRevealingSelf InterestMundaneConstraintsDigestionCandidPortrayingSocial OrganizationIconographyCandid Camera
Book:Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history
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“Christianity has held back any further advances in human consciousness for the past thousand years. And for the past century it's been in direct conflict with its illegitimate offspring, Communism (again with a capital C). Both ask the individual to sacrifice his self-interest to the higher goals of the organization. (Which is okay by me as long as it's voluntary; but as soon as either becomes too big - and takes on that damned capital C - they stop asking for cooperation and start demanding it.) Any higher states of human enlightenment have been sacrificed between these two monoliths.”

YearsHumansLongHas BeensTwoSelfStatesBigsPastAsksIndividualGoalInterestConsciousnessChristianitySacrificeCenturyHigherThousandConflictEnlightenmentDirectOkayOrganizationAskingCommunismCooperationThousand YearsSelf InterestOffspringHuman ConsciousnessHigher Goals
Author:David Gerrold
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“This was 1990, the year that communism died in Europe and it seemed strange to me that in all the words that were written about the fall of the iron curtain, nobody anywhere lamented that it was the end of a noble experiment. I know that communism never worked and I would have disliked living under it myself but none the less it seems that there was a kind of sadness in the thought that the only economic system that appeared to work was one based on self interest and greed.”

KnowsYearsKindEndsSelfSeemsFallInterestWrittenSadnessEconomicStrangeEuropeDiedGreedNobleExperimentsCommunismIronCurtainsSelf InterestEconomic SystemsIron Curtain
Author:Bill Bryson
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“In the background lurks the scourge of international terrorism. There are people exercising power in a few countries and leading political factions in others who seem to be moved by narrow, brutal and irrational impulses. Their view of their own self-interest is so blinkered as to leave no space for purely human values, for peaceful negotiation or for economic advancement. They are bent on the destruction of the established order and of civilised ways of doing business. They must never be allowed to succeed.”

PeopleWayHumansSelfCountrySeemsPoliticalValuesOrderInterestSpaceViewsEconomicExerciseSucceedDestructionMovedInternationalTerrorismBackgroundsPeacefulImpulseBrutalIrrationalBentNegotiationAdvancementSelf InterestFactionsHuman ValuesScourgeCivilisedInternational Terrorism
Author:Margaret Thatcher
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“Those who are successfully to lead their fellow-men, should have once possessed the nobler feelings. We have all known individuals whose magnanimity was not likely to be troublesome on any occasion; but then they betrayed their own interests by unwisely omitting the consideration, that such feelings might exist in the breasts of those whom they had to guide and govern: for they themselves cannot even remember the time when in their eyes justice appeared preferable to expediency, the happiness of others to self-interest, or the welfare of a State to the advancement of a party.”

MenShouldSelfStatesFeelingsMightEyeRememberIndividualInterestLeadershipJusticePartyKnownShould HaveFellowsGuidesOccasionsWelfareBreastsConsiderationPossessedBetrayedFellow ManAdvancementSelf InterestTroublesomeExpediencyMagnanimityOmitting
Book:Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
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“The essence of spirituality does not consist in a specialised or narrow interest in some imagined part of life, but in a certain enlightened attitude to all the various situations which obtain in life. It covers and includes the whole of life. All the material things of this world can be made subservient to the divine game, and when they are thus subordained they become auxiliary to the self-affirmation of the spirit.”

WorldDoeMadeSelfWholeSpiritCertainSpiritualityGamesInterestAttitudeSituationThis WorldDivineMaterialsEssenceVariousEnlightenedAffirmationParts Of LifeMaterial ThingsSubservientSelf Affirmation
Author:Meher Baba
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“To deny one's self, to take up the cross, denotes something immeasurably grander than self-imposed penance or rigid conformity to a Divine statute. It is the surrender of self to an ennobling work, an absolute subordination of personal advantages and of personal pleasures for the sake of truth and the welfare of others, and a willing acceptance of every disability which their interests may entail.”

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Author:George C. Lorimer
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“For as long as men and women have talked about war, they have talked about it in terms of right and wrong. And for almost as long, some among them have derided such talk, called it a charade, insisted that war lies beyond (or beneath) moral judgment. War is a world apart, where life itself is at stake, where human nature is reduced to its elemental forms, where self-interest and necessity prevail. Here men and women do what they must to save themselves and their communities, and morality and law have no place. Inter arma silent leges: in time of war the law is silent.”

MenWorldHumansLongWarSelfFormLawLyingTermInterestCommunityMoralHuman NatureMoralityJudgmentMen And WomenSilentStakesSelf InterestElementalsMoral JudgmentCharadesWorlds Apart
Book:Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations
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“Why does a woman carry a gun? Because, under our system, every citizen has the latitude to act in the absence of police; the latitude to act reasonably, to act immediately, to act in defense of self, to act in defense of another, to act with lethal force, to act with her acquired training and to act not in anger but to respond in purpose. To exercise the protections of that latitude in public policy, public interest and practical safety, all that is demanded of her is that she act reasonably under the circumstances.”

DoeSelfPurposeForceInterestPolicyCitizensCircumstancesExerciseTrainingGunPoliceSafetyProtectionDefenseAbsencePracticalsPublic PolicyPublic InterestLatitude
Author:John Longenecker
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“By a kind of happy pre-established harmony, such as a later age discovered between the needs of society and the self-interest of the individual, success in business is in itself almost a sign of spiritual grace, for it is a proof that a man has laboured faithfully in his vocation.”

MenNeedsKindSelfAgeSpiritualIndividualInterestGraceHarmonyProofBusiness SuccessVocationSelf InterestIndividual Success
Book:Religion And The Rise Of Capitalism
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