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Selfishness Quotes

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Selfishness Quotes

“Now see, there were those who Have and those who Did Not Have. They fashioned elegant words for this false arrangement, called them things like nations. And those who Have--for all they did was have and choose--chose to have what they couldn't. This, friend, is the way the world always ends, has always ended since we have watched it together: with those who Have choosing demise--always demise--for everything but themselves.”

NationsWealthPowerSelfishnessEnd Of The WorldArmageddonHaves And Have Nots
Book:Lost Ark Dreaming
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“Some of our friends are our friends only because we used to be friends.”

PhilosophyHumorPastHumanityFriendshipCompassionHumourFriendsEmpathyMercyCharityPhilosopherPartnersSelfishSeparationDenialSelfishnessSatireCompanionSympathyMatesGenesSelflessFriendAltruismAssociatesCompanionshipSelflessnessBuddyThe PastPartnerUnselfishPalsSatiristUnselfishnessTeresaMateCompanionsConfidantNelson MandelaGenieSocial CriticismMandelaGeneMother TeresaBuddiesAssociateGhandiMahatma GhandiConfidantsPal
Book:The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism
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“In some rare cases, a friendship between two people benefits both of them, and what’s more, in some rarer cases, it benefits both of them equally.”

PhilosophyHumorHumanityRelationshipsFriendshipCompassionRelationshipHumourFriendsBenefitsEmpathyAdvantageMercyCharityRewardsPhilosopherEqualitySelfishSelfishnessSatireCompanionSympathyMatesGenesSelflessFairnessUnfairFriendAltruismCompanionshipSelflessnessConvenienceFriendshipsUnselfishRewardUnfairnessPalsSatiristUnselfishnessTeresaBenefitMateFairCompanionsNelson MandelaGenieSocial CriticismMandelaGeneMother TeresaAdvantagesGhandiMahatma GhandiPal
Book:The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism
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“You claim to want love, but how can that be if you have not yet met the person you love? Rather, you desire its advantages: touch, security, and company. Love is born from another person—their touch, their company, their ideas. Love is a hand that knocks on our doors and owns no door of its own for you to knock on. When dealing with people, we are each too unique and changing to be labeled and be fitted to another person’s prerequisite needs. And so, it is our lovers who introduce us to our desire. Until then, it is not love that we want. If we claim, alone in our homes, to so badly want love, or marriage, we likely want that other thing.”

LoveRelationshipsMarriageHeartbreakTrue LoveAttractionSelfishnessParadoxThe Goodbye SongNaiveté
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“If you wait for the mango fruits to fall, you'd be wasting your time while others are learning how to climb the tree”

LifeFactsWisdomTruthActionMotivationTimeFallOpportunityWaitingInspiringBusinessPracticeLearningTreeReadyHard WorkIndustryActivityWasteIndependenceFruitFood For ThoughtSelfishWinnerSelfishnessEnterpriseLazyParadoxYieldLazinessFreeIdleIdlenessFatigueFactBeginningReadinessStartDoHardworkUpMotionAgilityMaximAttemptClimbBallgameMangoOn TopFree Gift
Book:The Book of Maxims, Poems and Anecdotes
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“*Prostitution* is a euphemism for rape incidents that the victim and the economy profits from.”

PhilosophyHumorHumanityMoneyCompassionPovertyEconomyHumourEmpathyMercyVictimCharityProfitPhilosopherSelfishSelfishnessSatireSympathyGenesSelflessAltruismSelflessnessRapePaymentProstitutionUnselfishRewardVictimsSatiristUnselfishnessTeresaEuphemismTaxNelson MandelaGenieSocial CriticismProstitutesRapistsMandelaGeneMother TeresaRapistGhandiMahatma GhandiInfedelity
Book:The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism
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“Imagine you're evil. Not misunderstood. Not sad. But evil. Imagine you've got a heart that spends all day wanting more. Imagine your mind is a selfish room full of pride or pity. Imagine you're like Brandon Goff and you find poor kids in the halls and make fun of their clothes, and you flick their ears until they scream in pain and swing their arms, and so you pin them down and break their fingers. Or you spit in his food in the cafeteria. Or you just call him things like cockroach and sand monkey. Imagine you're evil and you don't do any of those things, but you're like Julie Jenkins and you laugh and you laugh at everything Brandon does, and you even help when a teacher comes and asks what's going on and you say nothing's going on, and he believes you because you get A-pluses in English. Or imagine you just watch all of this. And you act like you're disgusted, because you don't like meanness. But you don't do anything or tell anyone. Imagine how much you've got compared to all the kids in the world getting blown up or starved, and the good you could do if you spent half a second thinking about it. Suddenly evil isn't punching people or even hating them. Suddenly it's all that stuff you've left undone. All the kindness you could have given. All the excuses you gave instead. Imagine that for a minute. Imagine what it means.”

EvilKindnessSelfishnessBullyingBulliesBystandersEvilness
Book:Everything Sad Is Untrue
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“She never murdered anyone. She didn't want to destroy the world. But I think there's another sort of evil that is often overlooked ... and it is this. Granny never did anything to help anyone else. She was rich and healthy (she lived into her nineties) but she was utterly selfish and complained all the time. ... As far as I know, she never tried to make anyone happy ... and if you ask me, evil is a perfectly reasonable description of someone like that.”

EvilSelfishness
Book:Granny
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“Never stand in the way of letting God use people’s actions, in order to solve a greater issue in the world.”

CharacterChoicesEvilGamesFearIgnorancePerceptionLiesAdversityInjusticeTrialsObsessionCrueltyCivil RightsSelfishnessSatanBoredomHypocrisyWickedLiarsBiasActionsConsequencesStalkingStereotypesBlindedHatersHackingGod S PlanSinnersWrong ChoicesMental Health StigmaMeddlingHuman Rights ViolationsCyberbullyingEvil DoersWitch HuntsBlindsightedTsloamaConsequences Of EvilWarpedEvil ActionsJudgersWrong Acts
Author:Shannon L. Alder
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“We're a society of brats, fighting over the same toys. That, for me, is the closest we come to be inherently evil as a people. It leads to selfishness, inflexibility, and impatience -- among so many other traits that are ugly and harmful. We're combative, competitive, petty, and suffer from one fatal flaw that I can never get my head around. We recognize behavior in others that makes us insane, while turning right around and doing the exact thing to someone else.”

PeopleLifeChildrenEvilSocietyCompetitionGoodSelfishnessInsanityMaturityMaterialismToysImpatienceThingsBratsInflexibility
Author:Trevor D. Richardson
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“People living under a selfish system become adjusted to it in order to survive. They therefore naturally acquire a personal selfishness and just as naturally assume this same selfishness exists in all others, including the organizer. This ingrained suspicion must be destroyed; its destruction of it is an essential part of the fight for a people’s world. Not only must the dignity of the individual be restored but in that process man must begin to see the good in other men. He cannot see the good in others unless he has some of it within himself.”

GoodnessSelfishnessCynicismSuspicionAssumptionsAssuming The Best
Book:Reveille for Radicals
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“...he [Perry Hildebrandt] broached the subject of goodness and its relation to intelligence. He'd come to the reception for selfless reasons, but he now saw that he might get not only a free buzz but free advise from, as it were, two professionals. 'I suppose what I'm asking,' he said, 'is whether goodness can ever truly be its own reward, or whether, consciously or not, it always serves some personal instrumentality.' Reverend Walsh [Trinity Lutheran] and the rabbi [Meyer] exchanged glances in which Perry detected pleasant surprise. It gratified him to upset their expectations of a fifteen-year-old. 'Adam may have a different answer,' the rabbi said, but in the Jewish faith there is really only one measure of righteousness: Do you celebrate God and obey His commandments?' 'That would suggest,' Perry said, 'that goodness and God are essentially synonymous.' 'That's the idea,' the rabbi said. 'In biblical times, when God manifested Himself more directly. He could seem like quite the hard-ass--striking people blind for trivial offenses, telling Abraham to kill his son. But the essence of the Jewish faith is that God does what He does, and we obey Him.' 'So, in other words, it doesn't matter what a righteous person's private thoughts are, so long as he obeys the letter of God's commandments?' 'And worships Him, yes. Of course, at the level of folk wisdom, a man can be righteous without being a -mensch.- I'm sure you see this, too, Adam--the pious man who makes everyone around him miserable. That might be what Perry is asking about.' 'My question,' Perry said, 'is whether we can ever escape our selfishness. Even if you bring in God, and make him the measure of goodness, the person who worships and obeys Him still wants something for himself. He enjoys the feeling of being righteous, or he wants eternal life, or what have you. If you're smart enough to think about it, there's always some selfish angle.' The rabbi smiled. 'There may be no way around it, when you put it like that. But we "bring in God," as you say--for the believer, of course, it's God who brought -us- in--to establish a moral order in which your question becomes irrelevant. When obedience is the defining principle, we don't need to police every little private thought we might have.' 'I think there's more to Perry's question, though,' Reverend Walsh said. 'I think he is pointing to sinfulness, which is our fundamental condition. In Christian faith, only one man has ever exemplified perfect goodness, and he was the Son of God. The rest of us can only hope for glimmers of what it's like to be truly good. When we perform an act of charity, or forgive an enemy, we feel the goodness of Christ in our hearts. We all have an innate capability to recognize true goodness, but we're also full of sin, and those two parts of us are constantly at war.' 'Exactly,' Perry said. 'How do I know if I'm really being good or if I'm just pursuing a sinful advantage?' 'The answer, I would say, is by listening to your heart. Only your heart can tell you what your true motive is--whether it partakes of Christ. I think my position is similar to Rabbi Meyer's. The reason we need faith--in our case, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ--is that it gives us a rock-solid basis for evaluating our actions. Only through faith in the perfection of our Savior, only by comparing our actions to his example, only by experiencing his living presence in our hearts, can we hope to be forgiven for the more selfish thoughts we might have. Only faith in Christ redeems us. Without him, we're lost in a sea of second-guessing our motives.”

GodFaithSinGoodnessSelfishness
Book:Crossroads
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“Moving from childhood to adulthood - that's not growing up. Moving from selfishness to selflessness - that's growing up. Moving from I to We - that's growing up. Moving from my culture, my country, my religion, to our cultures, our countries, our religions - that's growing up.”

CommunityGrowing UpGoodnessDiversityHumanismOnenessSelfishnessInclusionAdulthoodOne Human Race
Book:Making Britain Civilized: How to Gain Readmission to The Human Race
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“A selfish heart is an ever-consuming desert - no matter how much water you pour, it still wants more, whereas an unselfish heart is an ever-giving ocean - no matter how much water you draw, it still has plenty to give everyone.”

GivingKindnessSacrificeGoodnessSelfishSelfishnessSelflessAltruismSelf ObsessedLife Of Service
Book:Earthquakin' Egalitarian: I Die Everyday So Your Children Can Live
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“This is Not Us (The Sonnet) This is not us, Practicing savages abhorrent. This is not sapiens, Intelligent yet filthy indifferent. Some think we are advanced, But self-absorption is no advancement. Some say we have built a free world, But irresponsible freedom is mere derangement. Fancy clothes and accessories make no human, Nor do those shallow etiquettes. When we have no kindness for others, We are just good-looking cannibals. This cannot be the definition of humanity. Need of the hour is a life of inclusivity.”

KindnessPoemGoodnessHumanismSelfishnessAccountabilityInclusionHuman BehaviorSonnetShallowness
Book:When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation
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“Either Aşkistan or Junglistan (A Sonnet) Ours is either aşkistan, Land of love founded on amity, Or it is an archaic junglistan, Run by contagious self-centricity. What is civilized is also unselfish, For selfishness makes the animal, Across the self there is humanity, What is unselfish is also accountable. Technology may bring comfort, But it doesn't ensure ascension, When comfort belongs to the privileged, Such progress is mere descension. Over 3 billion years have gone in selfishness, It's time to unself our soul and rise as sapiens.”

HumanityKindnessCivilizationGoodnessSelfishnessSelflessEvolutionary PsychologySonnetSelf CenteredLove And Kindness
Book:Solo Standing on Guard: Life Before Law
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“The practice of that which is ethically best—what we call goodness or virtue—involves a course of conduct which, in all respects, is opposed to that which leads to success in the cosmic struggle for existence. In place of ruthless self-assertion it demands self-restraint; in place of thrusting aside, or treading down, all competitors, it requires that the individual shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows... It repudiates the gladiatorial theory of existence... Laws and moral precepts are directed to the end of curbing the cosmic process.”

SuccessScienceExistenceStruggleVirtueTheoryEvolutionGoodnessRespectEthicsSelfishnessBiologyCosmicRestraintRuthlessEvolution Of MoralityEvolution Of MoralsGladiatorial
Book:Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays
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“Umoja ni nguvu, utengano ni udhaifu. 2 + 2 = 5. Umoja una sisi (ubinadamu), si mimi (ubinafsi). Watu wanne wakifanya kazi kwa ushirikiano watakuwa na nguvu ya watu watano! Watakuwa na nguvu ya ziada kufanikisha malengo kama vile kuwa na uwezo wa kusaidia jamii kama timu au kama mtu binafsi, kujenga jengo la ofisi, kutengeneza ziada katika masuala ya uchumi wa kampuni au nchi au wa mtu binafsi, ushindi katika kitu chochote kile, na kadhalika. Mimi ni ubinafsi. Sisi ni ubinadamu. Ubinafsi ni uvivu. Ubinadamu ni uchapakazi.”

CountryHumanityIndividualWorkCompanyEconomyTeamStrengthVictoryWeaknessCapacityUnityGoalsSeparationSelfishnessCooperationLazinessIWeIndustriousMimiKaziNguvuUwezoNchiSisiUbinafsiUmojaUvivuCommunity SupportMalengoUchapakaziUbinadamuUshindiNguvu Ya ZiadaTimuExtra StrengthFive PeopleFour PeopleUtenganoWatu WanneWatu WatanoBuild An Office BuildingKampuniKujenga Jengo La OfisiKusaidia JamiiKutengeneza ZiadaMtu BinafsiProducing ExtraUchumiUdhaifuUshirikiano
Author:Enock Maregesi
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“In a self-focused world, we place ourselves at the center of our own personal universe. We are in control, at least that’s what we think. We are the central character, the protagonist of the story, and the rest of the world is just our contextual stage, built to serve our uniquely complex purpose. But we fail to realize everyone else enjoys relationships just as deep, dreams just as real, a purpose just as driving, and complexities just as beautiful as our own.”

PeoplePurposeUniverseDreamsSelfishnessComplexityStorySelflessnessOthers
Book:Let's Be Honest: Living a Life of Radical, Biblical Integrity
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“She tried to say his name and call to him, but her strength was gone from her. He saw by her eyes that she knew she was dying, and that her faith was gone and she was afraid. He saw that she did not believe in God, or continuation After death, and that this was the end for her and she would never see him again. She would be a candle blown in the darkness. He saw by her eyes that she knew now he could have saved her had he wanted, but he chose to let her die, and she did not understand.”

DeathLiesSelfishnessNarcissismLost HopeKilling Someone Through NeglectLost Belief
Book:Julius
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“Above all, avoid lying, especially lying to yourself. Keep watching out for your lies, watch for them every hour, every minute. Also avoid disgust, both for others and yourself: whatever strikes you as disgusting within yourself is cleansed by the mere fact that you notice it. Avoid fear, too, although fear is really only a consequence of lies. Never be afraid of your petty selfishness when you try to achieve love and don’t be too alarmed if you act badly on occasion.”

LoveLyingFearSelf LoveLiesSelfishnessDisgustCleansed
Book:The Brothers Karamazov
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“Can I discover how to live so that life ceases to be problematic, so that one lives in the eternal and not in grip of the falsities of time? Can I expunge selfishness from my gene pool? Can I mine from my central chord the ability to demonstrate empathy, supply a compress of sympathy, and extend charity for people in need of assistance? Can I concentrate all my cognitive material to express grace and thankfulness for the world? Must I shed the tattered shirt of yesteryear in order to advance to the next stage in life? When the pigmented henna of the naked self is exposed, do I see the resin of my elemental character more clearly? Stripped of the restrictive pig iron of disappointment, I realize that the mystique of the future trumps the perspicuity of my blemished past. Letting go of the past and torching a wagonload of personal guilt is freeing. Once disburdened from a repressive sense of a remorseful and shamefaced self, I am free to prowl about uninhibited and nurture a mantle of renewed optimism for the brilliant seasons to come.”

RegretEnlightenmentOptimismShameSelfishSelfishnessRemorseMemoir WritingGuilty ConscienceWriting Memoir
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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