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Selfish Quotes

Browse 1733 quotes about Selfish.

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Selfish Quotes

“Since the real purpose of meditation is to increase our capacity to help others, taking time each day to meditate is not selfish. We have to manage our time and energy in such a way that we can be of maximum benefit to others, and to do this we need time alone to recover our strength, collect our thoughts, and see things in perspective”

WayNeedsRealHelpingPurposeTimeEnergyMeditationStrengthPerspectiveOne DayBenefitsCapacityIncreaseSelfishHelping OthersManageOur TimeEach DayTake TimeOur ThoughtsMaximumMe AloneTime And EnergyTime Of NeedAlone TimeNot Selfish
Book:Eight Steps to Happiness: The Buddhist Way of Loving Kindness
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“Mr. Lincoln was generous by nature, and though his whole heart was in the war, he could not but respect the valor of those opposed to him. His soul was too great for the narrow, selfish views of partisanship. Brave by nature himself, he honored bravery in others, even his foes.”

HeartWarSoulWholeViewsBraveryBraveSelfishGenerousHonoredFoeValorPartisanship
Book:Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House
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“Honor to the idealists, whether philosophers or poets. They have improved us by mingling with our daily pursuits great and transcendent conceptions. They have thrown around our sensual life the grandeur of a better, and drawn us up from contacts with the temporal and the selfish to communion with beauty and truth and goodness.”

PoetHonorGoodnessPhilosopherSelfishPursuitContactSensualThrownConceptionCommunionGrandeurTranscendentIdealistMingling
Author:Edwin Hubbel Chapin
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“Now I had lived long enough and had heard enough from urchins my age and from other slaves, to distrust the person who calls himself merciful, or just, or kindly. Usually these are the most cruel, niggardly and selfish people, and slaves learn to fear the master who prefaces his remarks with tributes to his own virtues.”

PeoplePersonsLongEnoughAgeVirtueHeardMastersSlaveSelfishHypocrisyDistrustRemarksTributeMercifulSelfish People
Book:I, Juan de Pareja
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“Know that truth, forgiveness, and love can heal the world. Imagine if all of us could be truthful with ourselves, start forgiving everyone, and start loving everyone. We would no longer be selfish, gossiping would be over, and we would no longer judge one another. The world would become a place where all of us live in love.”

IfsKnowsWorldWould BeImagineJudgingAnd LoveForgivingSelfishHealTruthfulBeing TruthfulBeing SelfishLove And ForgivenessHeal The World
Author:Miguel Angel Ruiz
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“We're selfish to some degree, that's not a criticism and it doesn't mean that we are all narcissists. But in any situation our minds naturally evolve to what's in it for me? How does this affect me? Can this benefit me? Can this harm me? Then we might move on from that and have a more altruistic point of view about things but that's almost always our initial response.”

MindMeanDoeMightMovingViewsSituationDegreesBenefitsCriticismResponseHarmPoint Of ViewSelfishEvolveInitialsNarcissist
Author:Robert Greene
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“Deep down, everything boils down ("au fond tout se ramène", Fr.) to the following simple question; Do we really want justice and the realization in this world of higher principles, or else do we want to serve selfish, short-sighted (à courte vue", Fr.) interests, which, when all is said and done, are also prejudicial (or detrimental, or harmful) to those very same that pursue them?”

WorldWantSaidDoneInterestJusticeSimplePrinciplesThis WorldHigherFollowingSelfishPursueRealizationDeep DownSaid And DoneDetrimentalRamsShort Sighted
Author:African Spir
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“Apart from selfish reasons, such as fear of punishments, fear of blame, of dishonour, etc, there remains only two motives that can stop (or prevent, "empâecher", Fr.) men from acting badly; the natural sense of commiseration (or "sympathy", - "commisération", Fr.) for one's fellow men - compassion, and the influence of education, by association of ideas ("par l'association d'idées", Fr.) - habit.”

MenTwoIdeasReasonNaturalActingCompassionInfluenceHabitFellowsBlameRemainsSelfishPunishmentMotiveEtcAssociationFellow ManRationsDishonourSelfish ReasonsActing Badly
Author:African Spir
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“The existence of very pious feelings, in conjunction with intolerance, cruelty, and selfish policy, has never ceased to surprise and perplex those who have viewed it calmly from a distance. ... It is impossible to exaggerate the evil work theology has done in the world. What destruction of the beautiful monuments of past ages, what waste of life, what disturbance of domestic and social happiness, what perverted feelings, what blighted hearts, have always marked its baneful progress!”

WorldHeartDoneFeelingsAgePastBeautifulEvilSocialExistenceProgressImpossiblePolicyWasteDestructionDistanceSurpriseSelfishTheologyCrueltyHypocrisyIntoleranceMonumentPiousDisturbanceConjunctionsWaste Of Life
Author:Lydia M. Child
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“It is wonderful how shy even liberal ministers generally are about trusting people with the plain truth concerning their religion. They want to veil it in a supernatural haze. They are very reluctant to part with the old idea that God has given to Jews and Christians a peculiar monopoly of truth. It is a selfish view of God's government of the world, and it is time that we knew enough to outgrow it.”

PeopleWorldWantIdeasEnoughGovernmentChristianGivenViewsWonderfulJewSelfishMinistersShyPeculiarVeilsMonopolyReluctantHazeOld IdeasTrusting People
Author:Lydia M. Child
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“I have learned to go fully in the face of my dreams. I would recommend you do the same. Now is the time in your life to be selfish. To explore. To take chances. Remember being selfish is not the same as being self-indulgent. You have the gift of time. Use it to do what you love. Believe anything is possible and then work like hell to make it happen.”

BelieveSelfUseDreamHappensRememberFacesChanceLove IsHellSelfishI Have LearnedTake A ChanceWhat You LoveMake It HappenAnything Is PossibleBeing SelfishSelf IndulgentGift Of Time
Author:Julianna Margulies
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“I just want that unconditional love, the kind you get with a family member. You might get lucky enough to find that unconditional love in a friend or a lover, but it's very rare. So if I ever have a kid, it'd be so that I could look in those eyes and know that this child is a piece of me and will love me the same way I love, but I think that's selfish of me.”

IfsThinkingKnowsWayWantLooksKindChildrenEnoughMightEyeKidsPiecesLoversLuckyMembersSelfishUnconditional LoveUnconditionalFamily Members
Author:Michelle Rodriguez
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“We cannot forget that we live and have been living for many years in the midst of an empire. We cannot forget that the different provinces of India are gradually coming closer to one another and a new nationality which comprises not only the different provinces but the whole of India is growing up in our midst and we cannot forget that our interests, even our selfish interests, our hopes, our ambitions are indissolubly connected with the interest of the empire.”

YearsHas BeensDifferentWholeInterestForgetGrowing UpGrowingAmbitionIndiaConnectedSelfishEmpiresMidstNationalityProvincesSelfish Interest
Author:Chittaranjan Das
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“This seclusion of the artist with his work, sometimes misconceived as a selfish thing, is in truth as needful a tool as any, if a vision is to be made clear to others. And all the men I have known do creative work obtained it; either mechanically, by the walls of a workroom, or by that withdrawal into themselves which is part of their power.”

IfsMenMadeSometimesArtistKnownVisionCreativeClearHe ManWallToolsSelfishCreative WorkWithdrawalSeclusion
Author:Georgiana Burne-Jones
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“In fact we do not try to picture the afterlife, nor is it our selves in our nervous tics and optical flecks that we wish to perpetuate; it is the self as the window on the world that we can't bear to thinkof shutting. My mind when I was a boy of ten or eleven sent up its silent scream at the thought of future aeons -- at the thought of the cosmic party going on without me. The yearning for an afterlife is the opposite of selfish: it is love and praise of the world that we are privileged, in this complex interval of light, to witness and experience.”

WorldTryingMindSelfFactsLightWishPartyBoysBearsTenWindowOppositesPraiseSilentComplexesSelfishNervousWitnessScreamCosmicAfterlifeYearningPrivilegedElevenIntervalsTics
Author:John Updike
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“I'm selfish, I think. I think an artist has to be. I'm not worried about what people think. I play the parts that I find interesting. It'd bother me more to be just pigeonholed into doing what people think is ethical or that's boring to me. I don't pick parts with that in mind, I just find interesting stories. If it's interesting to me, then I do it.”

PeopleIfsThinkingMindPlayStoriesArtistInterestingPicksBoringSelfishWorriedBotherEthicalInteresting Stories
Author:Denzel Washington
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“"Mine ain't a selfish affection, you know," said Mr. Toots, in the confidence engendered by his having been a witness of the Captain's tenderness. "It's the sort of thing with me, Captain Gills, that if I could be run over - or - or trampled upon - or - or thrown off a very high place -or anything of that sort - for Miss Dombey's sake, it would be the most delightful thing that could happen to me."”

IfsKnowsLoveSaidHappensWould BeRunningMissingMinesSakeAffectionSelfishWitnessIf I CouldThrownTendernessCaptainsDelightfulHigh PlacesDelightful Things
Book:Works
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“Notwithstanding his very liberal laudation of himself, however, the Major was selfish. It may be doubted whether there ever was a more entirely selfish person at heart; or at stomach is perhaps a better expression, seeing that he was more decidedly endowed with that latter organ than with the former.”

HeartMayPersonsCharacterInterestingSeeingExpressionMajorsSelfishFormerLatterStomachOrgansDoubtedInteresting CharactersSelfish Person
Book:Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].
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“Old Mr. Rarx was not a pleasant man to look at, nor yet to talk to, or to be with, for no one could help seeing that he was a sordid and selfish character, and that he had warped further and further out of the straight with time.”

MenLooksCharacterHelpingInterestingSeeingSelfishPleasantInteresting Characters
Book:Dickens Ultimate Christmas Collection: The Greatest Stories & Novels for Christmas Time: A Christmas Carol, Doctor Marigold, Oliver Twist, Tom Tiddler's Ground, The Holly-Tree and more (Illustrated): The Best Loved Christmas Classics in One Volume
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