Quotes About Self-serving

A theory is like medicine (or government): often useless, sometimes necessary, always self-serving, and on occasion lethal. So it needs to be used with care, moderation, and close adult supervision.

Every other form is self-serving.*4

the greatest danger to America's future came from self-serving opportunism masquerading as patriotism.

As Arnold had demonstrated, the real enemy was not Great Britain, but those Americans who sought to undercut their fellow citizens' commitment to one another. Whether it was Joseph Reed's willingness to promote his state's interests at the expense of what was best for the country as a whole or Arnold's decision to sell his loyalty to the highest bidder, the greatest danger to America's future came from self-serving opportunism masquerading as patriotism.

They knew what had happened at school and what was happening now, but they dismissed it in that self-serving way parents often had of pretending anything they can't solve isn't really a problem.

They knew what had happened at school, and what was happening now, but they dismissed it in that self-serving way parents often had of pretending anything they can't solve is not really a problem.

The fact that physicians commit suicide more frequently than do lay persons ought to unmask their claims about suicide prevention as self-serving propaganda.

Again, wherever there were tyrants, their habit of providing simply for themselves, of looking solely to their personal comfort and family aggrandizement, made safety the great aim of their policy, and prevented anything great proceeding from them; though they would each have their affairs with their immediate neighbors.

interpretation, of course, is that, as some enlightened (and no doubt rather embittered) soul once pointed out, there is no such thing as a truly altruistic act. There is always, however well camouflaged in the darker recesses of our dense psychological undergrowth, an ulterior, self-serving, distinctly less honourable motive

Conway and Ross referred to this self-serving memory distortion as "getting what you want by revising what you had." On the larger stage of life, many of us do just that: We misremember our history as being worse than it was, thus distorting our perception of how much we have improved so that we'll feel better about ourselves now.15 All of us do grow and mature, but generally not as much as we think.

Reason is poor propaganda when opposed by the yammering, unceasing lies of shrewd and evil and self-serving men.

The myth of the self-made man, has to be profoundly hypocritical: it is the self-serving demonstration that a lie is the truth

Lucsly glanced back. "That's just it. I'm not supposed to know." He paused. "A history of race hatred . . . a self-serving demagogue stirring up new resentments for his own ends . . . you don't need time travel to predict where that's heading. It's up

And if redemption was self-serving, coming as it did ribbon-tied to what he wanted most in life? For once, Akiva's shame wouldn't rise to the bait. He wanted what he'd always wanted, and he'd better just say it, his own worries and fears be damned.

Unsolicited advice is always self-serving.

One's past is not one's destiny, and it is self-serving to pretend that it is. If henceforth I were miserable, it would be my own fault: and I vowed never to waste my substance on petty domestic conflict.

But I was falling prey to that old self-serving notion that well-intended rhetoric can remove a stone bruise from the soul.

The United Nations has come under the control of outlaw nations and self-serving special interest groups.

I'm suspicious of any plan to fix unfairness that starts with 'step one, dismantle the entire system and replace it with a better one,' especially if you can't do anything else until step one is done. Of all the ways that people kid themselves into doing nothing, that one is the most self-serving.

Personally, I'd like to see the word genre taken out back and shot, a bullet in the back of its head, if it's going to be so overloaded with meanings it's just gibberish skewed to self-serving doublethink.

Because history has the functions it has—supplying practical lessons and moral examples, shaping a culture's identity and even influencing one's view of destiny—it is no surprise that a culture's history of itself will be somewhat self-serving, casting itself in the role of good guy, emphasizing its virtues and minimizing its shortcomings.

The corrupt, self-serving prick was trying to distract you from the truth to save his career, remember?

Confirmation bias = hunting for information that confirms our initial assumptions (which are often self-serving).

Actors can be many things - vain, venal, self-serving, obnoxious, bullies - but all of the good ones are great storytellers.