Quotes About Selflessness

we can learn to love. How do we do that? …First things first. First we discipline our ego to look beyond the narrow confines of its immediate needs; then we will have a change to understand what real love is. First manners, then love (pp.19-20).

The root of faults is nothing other than your ego-clinging, the attitude of deluded fixation, so cut the ties of ego-clinging! Cast away the fixation on enemy and friend! Forsake worldly concerns! Abandon materialistic pursuits! Engage in nothing but the Dharma from the core of your heart! Just as a seedling doesn't grow on a stone, there will be no enhancement without removing the fault of ego-clinging. You should therefore abandon the root of all evils, ego-clinging. (p. 90)

His kind of courage was boundless, though, and he would not have turned away a person in need, whether a star performer or a simple laborer or a child such as Theo with no skills at all. It was not about the circus or family connections, but human decency. Herr

I'm not sure she's ready," Brian added, "to put someone else first.

Connor, prepared to sacrifice himself to save Sarah] God, I pray, give me the strength to live the next hour well.

I am _not_ a woman from your village." His eyes narrowed. "No, you are not, for if you were, you would be grateful for the better fate Connor has won for you with his blood. Rather than thinking only of yourself, you would be beside him now, tending his hurts.

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.

The man had no idea what it was like to love a woman more than he loved himself, to be bound to her body and soul, to see her in his children's faces, to know down to his bones that she was the axis of his world.

For some American moms, there's something morally righteous about committing to motherhood at the expense of their bodies. It's like giving yourself over to a higher cause.

Sunt gata sa dau totul cui nu cere nimic, dar nu vreau sa cedez nimic cui asteapta totul de la celalalt.

Being a martyr is highly overrated.

You cannot sacrifice the world for your children.

To be faithful, he wrote, a person had to be concerned less about himself and more about caring for his neighbor.

Joy connects us to something larger than ourselves," Beethoven explained, "while happiness is something more personal, something a little more selfish perhaps.

Love is when you fry the other person's bacon even if you're a vegetarian.

A good improviser is someone who is awake, not entirely self-focused, and moved by a desire to do something useful and give something back and who acts upon this impulse.

mean that if you spend your time putting the love of your heart into what you do for those who are not your friends, you may often be disappointed and discouraged. But if you keep on trying you will find your happiness in loving, whether you are loved back or not.

I vowed to myself to do everything possible to help my parents be happy, and I prayed they would work at it, too. I knew I wanted to provide them with every bit of support I could without taking away their own legs to stand on.

it's your actual act of service and going out of your way that makes you stand apart from everybody else.

executives must put the needs of the higher team ahead of the needs of their departments.

I do what I have to do," I say. I do what I have to do to save him. I do what I have to do to save Todd.

The Apothecary was surprised. "You would give up everything you believed in?" "If it would save my daughters," the parson said. "I'd give up everything.

You did not want things for yourself. That made you small. That kept you safe. That meant you could move smoothly through the world without upsetting every applecart you came across. And if you were careful, if you were a proper part of things, then you could help. You mended what was cracked. You tended to the things you found askew. And you trusted that the world in turn would brush you up against the chance to eat. It was the only graceful way to move. All else was vanity and pride.

Three circles. Perfect for asking. It was better to be gentle and polite. It was the worst sort of selfishness to force yourself upon the world.