Quotes About Self-interest

I am a businessman. To me, people only do things out of self-interest.

However, if everyone were really only out to advance his own interest, the world would have already ground to a halt, as there would be so much cheating in trading and slacking in production. More importantly, if we design our economic system based on such an assumption, the result is likely to be lower, rather than higher, efficiency.

Nobody is a permanent friend,nobody is a permanent enemy. Everybody has his own self-interest. Once you recognise that, everybody will be better off.

Amazing what we can self-rationalize when we really want something

For the thief and the humanitarian each have the same motive — to do what he believes will make him feel good. In fact, we can't avoid a very significant conclusion: Everyone is selfish.

Politicians tend only to like democracy when it is to their personal advantage (From LONE WOLF, p.50)

Not for nothing was Smith's first book about moral philosophy. His concern, as Foley says, was the one that has haunted economic thinking ever since: "how to be a good person and live a good and moral life within the antagonistic, impersonal, and self-regarding social relations that capitalism imposes.

The whole of Lucy's behaviour in the affair, and the prosperity which crowned it, therefore, may be held forth as a most encouraging instance of what an earnest, an unceasing attention to self-interest, however its progress may be apparently obstructed, will do in securing every advantage of fortune, with no other sacrifice than that of time and conscience.

Ich bin nur entschlossen, im Interesse meines Glückes zu handeln, ohne Rücksicht auf Sie oder irgendjemanden, der ebenso wenig mit mir zu tun hat.

Both parties act in their political self-interest. Indeed, that's the purpose of a political party. But unlike Democrats, at least Republicans are honest about it.

For the state by its nature claims sovereignty, the right to an unlimited development of power, determined only by self-interest. It is by nature anarchistic.

We really can't tell the difference between people who might seek power for some greater good and people who seek power just to aggrandize themselves. For example, all revolutionaries say that they want to uplift the downtrodden.

The most difficult thing is to recognize that sometimes we too are blinded by our own incentives. Because we don't see how our conflicts of interest work on us.

It's normal that countries work for their own benefit, political and economic.

The power of self-interest is still present in the believer

Our template or road map is Ephesians 4. As you read it, ask yourself what it says about (1) the struggle of self-interest and (2) God's agenda for our relationships. This passage will be the grid you can use to look at the issues of relationship we address in this book.

Men often act knowingly against their interest.

Individuals move and shift from one party to another simply on their aspirations for office.

Perhaps the most powerful lesson other brands can learn from Nike is the need to act in accordance with the reality of the world we live in. In a mutually dependant, intimately connected global community facing several major crises, brands need to operate with an expanded definition of self-interest that includes the greater good.

The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror. We think that we are generous because we credit our neighbour with the possession of those virtues that are likely to be a benefit to us. We praise the banker that we may overdraw our account, and find good qualities in the highwayman in the hope that he may spare our pockets.

We praise the banker that we may overdraw our account, and find good qualities in the highwayman in the hope that he may spare our pockets. I mean everything that I have said.

Vain sopimaton miellyttää, vain oma nautinto kiinnostaa, ja toisten murheet viihdyttävät eniten.

Jim Farley descubrió al principio de su vida que el común de los hombres se interesa más por su propio nombre que por todos los demás de la tierra.

People are not interested in you. They are not interested in me. They are interested in themselves—morning, noon and after dinner.