Quotes About Altruism

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angles, but am note nice, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but am not nice, I am nothing. If I give all I posses to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but am not nice, I gain nothing.

The culture in which we live stresses looking out for number one. Without adopting such a self-centered value system, we can demand the best of ourselves while we are extending our hands to help others.

Doing the right thing when it is not popular or when it is not going to get everyone's approval is not always easy, but I am convinced that if we truly care about other people, we will go ahead and take the risk anyway.

Of course I was embarrassed but I don't think you can do anything for anyone without giving up something of your own

Arcades are altruism turned architecture – private property given to an entire community.

These illustrations suggest four general maxims[...]. The first is: remember that your motives are not always as altruistic as they seem to yourself. The second is: don't over-estimate your own merits. The third is: don't expect others to take as much interest in you as you do yourself. And the fourth is: don't imagine that most people give enough thought to you to have any special desire to persecute you.

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.

Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.

One must care about a world one will not see.

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.

If men would learn to pursue their own happiness rather than the misery of others, we can achieve a better life for everyone. Adopting this would help turn our Earth into a paradise.

Kita tidak bisa menjamin kesejahteraan kita, kecuali dengan menjamin kesejahteraan orang-orang lain juga. Jika anda bahagia, anda harus rela mengusahakan orang-orang lain agar bahagia pula.

What can we do for the world while we live? Many men and women would wish to serve mankind, but they are perplexed and their power seems infinitesimal. Despair seizes them; those who have the strongest passion suffer most from the sense of impotence, and are most liable to spiritual ruin through lack of hope.

If men were rational, they would take a more correct view of their own interest than they do at present; and if all men acted from enlightened self-interest the world would be a paradise in comparison with what it is. I do not maintain that there is nothing better than self-interest as a motive to action; but I do maintain that self-interest, like altruism, is better when it is enlightened than when it is unenlightened.

To preach an altruistic morality appears to me somewhat useless, because it will appeal only to those who already have altruistic desires. But to preach rationality is somewhat different, since rationality helps us to realize our own desires on the whole, whatever they may be.

The immense majority of even the noblest persons' actions have self-regarding motives, nor is this to be regretted, since if it were otherwise, the human race could not survive. A man who spent his time seeing that others were fed and forgot to feed himself would perish.

Another not uncommon victim of persecution mania is a certain type of philanthropist, who is always doing good to people against their will, and is amazed and horrified that they display no gratitude. Our motives in doing good are seldom as pure as we imagine them to be. Love of power is insidious; it has many disguises, and is often the source of the pleasure we derive from doing what we believe to be good to other people.

My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.

Si existiese en el mundo de hoy un número tan grande de gente que deseara su propia felicidad más de lo que desean la infelicidad del resto, tendríamos el paraíso en unos pocos años

love thy neighbour' is less a pious injunction than a rule for survival. If you meet one in trouble, you stop — another time he may stop for you.

To extend hands of service without hearts of love is virtually meaningless.

Lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. Luke 6:35

Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.

One of the magical things about kindness is that it's what we nerds call a 'happiness aggregator.' People confuse kindness with being nice. And they're very different. You can be nice and be passive. But kindness requires action.