Quotes About Self-interest

I may be oversimplifying, but it does seem to me that, as the saying goes, we are what we eat, and that's a cultural statement as well, which means the kinds of families that have been 'flourishing' in this society for a hundred and fifty years, especially in the white middle classes, have become what they have embraced: consumerism; militant self-interest; and wars to subdue 'natives,' obtain international power, and control various governments.

we have a bit of self-interest in relieving the misery of others. One school of modern economic theory, following Hobbes, argues that people give to charities in part because of the pleasure they get from imagining either the relief of those they benefit or their own relief from alleviating their sympathetic distress.

There are two principles of established acceptance in morals; first, that self-interest is the mainspring of all of our actions, and secondly, that utility is the test of their value.

Selfishness is the grand moving principle of nine-tenths of our actions.

Even as age humbles me it feeds my arrogance. There is still nothing that interests me as much as myself.

Hence the uselessness of logic: no one ever convinced anybody by logic; and even logicians use logic only as a source of income. To convince a man, you must appeal to his self-interest, his desires, his will.

She [Ayn Rand] had to declare that....altruism was despicable, that only self-interest is good and noble. (About Ayn Rand)

What did Miss Rand in was her anxiety to theologize her beliefs. She was an eloquent and persuasive antistatist, and if only she had left it at that—but no, she had to declare that God did not exist, that altruism was despicable, that only self-interest is good and noble. She risked, in fact, giving to capitalism that bad name that its enemies have done so well in giving it; and that is a pity.

How can we make people care about our ideas? We get them to take off their Analytical Hats. We create empathy for specific individuals. We show how our ideas are associated with things that people already care about. We appeal to their self-interest, but we also appeal to their identities—not only to the people they are right now but also to the people they would like to be

If the heart chakra is overdeveloped and the solar plexus chakra is underdeveloped, there is a tendency that other people will take advantage of you, abuse and misuse you. If the solar plexus is overactivated, there is a tendency to be too selfish and may be even ruthless. To become psychologically healthy, the solar plexus chakra and heart chakra must be balancedly developed. This is balancing loving-kindness with self-interest.

It seemed to me that there was a self-interest hidden in the core of all of us, which cooled us when we contemplated any fate which did not touch us directly.

Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.

People are weary of politicians who make promises they are either unwilling or unable to keep. Society longs for statesmen but it gets politicians. Statesmen are leaders who uphold what is right regardless of the popularity of the position. Statesmen speak out to achieve good for their people, not to win votes. Statesmen promote the general good rather than regional or personal self-interest.

No sort of activity is likely to be lasting if it is not founded on self-interest, that's a universal principle, a philosophical principle

People only like whatever concerns themselves and I am no exception to this rule.

I don't work with anyone out of a sense of charity. I use people as long as they are useful to me.

There are only individual people, different individual people, with their own individual lives. Using one of these people for the benefit of others uses him and benefits the others. Nothing more. What happens is that something is done to him for the sake of others. Talk of an overall social good covers this up.

At the U.N., I routinely encounter countries that do not want to impose sanctions or even to enforce those already on the books. The hard-line sanctions skeptics have their own self-interested reasons for opposing sanctions, but they ground their opposition in claims that America uses sanctions to inflict punishment for punishment's sake.

The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau speculated that states are formed by a social contract, a rational decision reached when people calculated their self-interest, came to the agreement that they would be better off in a state than in simpler societies, and voluntarily did away with their simpler societies. But

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is; the people is never corrupted, but it is often deceived... (Bk2:3)

Les gens qui passent exactement la vie entière à travailler pour vivre n'ont d'autre idée que celle de leur travail ou de leur intérêt, et tout leur esprit semble être au bout de leurs bras.

One always wants what is good for oneself, but one does not always see it. The people is never corrupted, but it is often fooled, and only then does it appear to want what is bad.

Bien sea de hombre a hombre, bien sea de hombre a pueblo, siempre será igualmente descabellado este discurso: Celebro contigo un contrato en el cual todos los deberes están a tu cargo y todos los beneficios están a mi favor; contrato, que respetaré mientras se me dé la gana y que tú observarás mientras se me dé la gana.

Advice: The suggestions you give someone else which you hope will work for your benefit.