Quotes About Selflessness

I deserve respect for the things I did not do.

People can disagree politically and philosophically on all the issues that confront our nation, but if more of our elected officials had served in causes other than their own advancement, I believe they would approach their jobs with less certainty in their own assumptions and more sympathy for the needs of others.

We either choose to be part of a community that stretches beyond ourselves, our material needs, and our creature comforts, or we do not. In our society, it is possible for the selfish and self-centered to live at the expense of the rest of the population.

What you don't get from having a mother versus being a mother is how consuming it was, how profoundly one-sided. The child's job was to need her mother less and less, a progression toward independence. But the mother's job was to always help, always be there when needed, and never, ever stop worrying.

In Conversation, Resist the Temptation to Reflexively Add Value: The most important part of creating vulnerability often resides not in what you say but in what you do not say. This means having the willpower to forgo easy opportunities to offer solutions and make suggestions. Skilled listeners do not interrupt with phrases like Hey, here's an idea or Let me tell you what worked for me in a similar situation because they understand that it's not about them.

This is what I would call a muscular humility—a mindset of seeking simple ways to serve the group.

Clearly, your behavior matters beyond yourself and is an important reason to get healthy now.

Martin Luther King Jr. observed that those who failed to offer their aid asked themselves the question: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But the Good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man what will happen to him?

Giving to others is most precious when it is done quietly and selflessly.

Altruistic love: giving to others is most precious when it is done quietly and selflessly

I think we owe it to our children to share our wisdom. If we share our wisdom for the purpose of changing our children, then that's hitting them over the head with a hammer or shoving something down their throats. If the wisdom turns into advice, that's selfish. But if we simply share ourselves and let our children know our hearts, then it's a gift. And I think it's a gift we're responsible for giving them.

Anytime you're tempted to upsell someone else, stop what you're doing and upserve instead. Don't try to increase what they can do for you. Elevate what you can do for them.

He regrets not having "the experience of hardship and sacrifice," of depending on others for survival and of their relying on him. "If you're serving someone, it means you're not serving yourself

You can't spoil your children by giving them too much of yourself.

I try to do everything from the viewpoint of what's best for my kids. I have three kids and two great dads and it's not always easy, but you have to try to be a little selfless and we manage just fine.

I couldn't be a police officer. It's a very difficult job to put your life in the face of danger for someone else, and that is extremely selfless. To now vilify cops is not really the way I think it should be looked at.

The irony is that 'looking down on everybody else' is a violation of the law of love, which, according to Jesus, is the absolute essence of righteousness.

Rambo isn't violent. I see Rambo as a philanthropist.

We tend to think of heroes only in terms of violent combat, whether it's against enemies or a natural disaster. But human beings also perform radical acts of compassion; we just don't talk about them, or we don't talk about them as much.

I don't want to be a VIP. I want to be an LIP, a Less Important Person.

Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.

When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That's one of the great feelings - to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue.

This idea of selfishness as a virtue, as opposed to generosity: That, to me, is unnatural.

Generosity is a virtue, but unlimited generosity is a fast route to bankruptcy.