Quotes About Self-interest

It's always so attractive to be able to do good at somebody else's expense

Love longs to be free, a stranger to every worldly desire, lest its inner vision become dimmed, and lest worldly self-interest hinder it or ill-fortune cast it down.

We are animals, yet are expected to be so much more. Although honor requires us to make altruistic decisions, even acting for the benefit of other people keeps coming back to self-interest, no matter how much one attempts to conceal it.

Consider human life: We are animals, yet are expected to be so much more. Although honor requires us to make altruistic decisions, even acting for the benefit of other people keeps coming back to self interest, no matter how much one attempts to conceal it. —REVEREND MOTHER RAQUELLA BERTO-ANIRUL

Because, Richard, many people must be ruled to thrive. In their selfishness and greed, they see free people as their oppressors.

I know about people who talk about suffering for the common good. It's never bloody them! When you hear a man shouting Forward, brave comrades! you'll see he's the one behind the bloody big rock and the wearing the only really arrow-proof helmet!

There is little evidence that other animals judge the appropriateness of actions that do not directly affect themselves.

Third, nurture human nature. At the heart of twentieth-century economics stands the portrait of rational economic man: he has told us that we are self-interested, isolated, calculating, fixed in taste and dominant over nature—and his portrait has shaped who we have become. But human nature is far richer than this, as early sketches of our new self-portrait reveal: we are social, interdependent, approximating, fluid in values and dependent upon the living world.

The pernicious effects of the self-interest theory have been most disturbing,' concludes Frank. 'By encouraging us to expect the worst in others, it brings out the worst in us: dreading the role of the chump, we are often loath to heed our nobler instincts.

Execution is the result of thousands of decisions made every day by employees acting according to the information they have and their own self-interest.

Though pursuing holiness seems to be—and, in fact, is—a noble aim, and wanting to experience greater depth in holiness appears to be—and, in fact, is—a godly pursuit, it's possible that our desire for increased growth may be fueled by pride, ambition, and self-interest—and our attitude as we wait is often the best indicator of what our true motivation is.

We proclaim human intelligence to be morally valuable per se because we are human. If we were birds, we would proclaim the ability to fly as morally valuable per se. If we were fish, we would proclaim the ability to live underwater as morally valuable per se. But apart from our obviously self-interested proclamations, there is nothing morally valuable per se about human intelligence.

The Barbary powers, with their mixture of greed, religious fanaticism, and self-interest, would not listen to reason. They

En política, llegar al poder nunca tiene que ver con hacer lo correcto. Siempre tiene que ver con hacer lo que conviene.

Adam Smith, capitalism's original storyteller, "wrote that the ultimate goal of business is not to make a profit. Profit is just the means. The goal is general welfare" (Wink 1992, 68). Instead, the view of capitalism in play today tends to reduce people to economic beings driven by utilitarian self-interest toward the goal of accumulating wealth. What

Loyalty and religion have many meanings, and self-interest is a skilled interpreter.

the scientific view that all behavior is ultimately based on self-interest isn't new at all—it began its climb early in the twentieth century.

The only thing we're concerned about is what's right for us. We got our own definition of "right.

self-interest and kindness were best not separated

Remember that all financial markets are filled with good but not necessarily innocent people looking after their own self-interests before they look after yours.

The man is distinguished from the youth by the fact that he takes the world as it is, instead of everywhere fancying it amiss and wanting to improve it, i.e. model it after his ideal; in him the view that one must deal with the world according to his interest, not according to his ideals, becomes confirmed.

I was induced to establish several orders of merit, from conviction that emulation, well directed, becomes a useful servant; and, that the latent genius of some youth is more easily brought into action this way, than by the more sordid gratification of self-interest.

That's the trick of free market economic theory: it doesn't just ask you to only be selfish and not care about others. It tells you that by being selfish, you are helping others. And, in fact, by trying to directly help others, you will hurt them.

One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.