Quotes About Selfishness

Three quarters of our intellectual performances are no more than decorations upon a void; I wondered if that increasing vacuity was due to the lowering of intelligence or to moral decline; whatever the cause, mediocrity of mind was matched almost everywhere by shocking selfishness and dishonesty.

El sufrimiento nos hace egoístas porque nos absorbe por entero: sólo más tarde, en forma de recuerdo, nos enseña la compasión.

L'incivilimento dei costumi, il progresso delle idee durante l'ultimo secolo è opera d'una minoranza esigua di spiriti illuminati; la massa resta ignara, feroce quando può, sempre egoista e gretta, e si può scommettere fondatamente che tale resterà sempre.

I had thought the only person Neil loved was himself. That he probably shouted his own name when he was coming.

The  thought system which dominates our culture is laced with selfish values, and relinquishing those values is a lot easier said than done. The journey to a pure heart can be highly disorienting.  For years, we may have worked for power, money or prestige.  Now all of a sudden we've learned that these are just the values of a dying world.

Fear is our shared lovelessness, our individual and collective hells. It's a world that seems to press on us from within and without, giving constant false testimony to the meaninglessness of love. When fear is expressed, we recognize it as anger, abuse, disease, pain, greed, addiction, selfishness, obsession, corruption, violence, and

If you legitimize their self-centeredness, they'll be more likely to forget about their ancestors, their fellow citizens, or their descendants.

Every man measures his own greed.

Resultó desconcertante para muchos lectores de La riqueza de las naciones descubrir que no es el altruismo ni la caridad, sino más bien el egoísmo, el motor del progreso:

His only cause, ultimately, was himself.

But birth control can also be compelled by sinful motivations. These can include putting lesser priorities like career above higher priorities like family or greedily wanting to make as much income as possible to the exclusion of everything else, and not incur the costs of child raising; being selfish and not wanting to have to care for a child; or immaturely not wanting to take on the responsibility that good parenting requires.

The sad truth is that we live in a world that encourages selfishness, independence, convenience, isolation, and using people rather than loving them.

Consequently they never learn how to make a compromise or earn respect, they never need to imagine how the world might appear from the point of view of another person, they never truly love and they are never truly loved.

Those who are vain have little ability to feel grateful.

Gradually, I came to accept hunger as a constant companion. But this new hunger was different. It filled me with hatred, confusion, helplessness, hopelessness, anxiety, loneliness, selfishness and a cynical attitude toward people.

We give far more to charity per capita than Europeans do. Why? Are we born better? No. The bigger the government the worse the citizen. They are preoccupied in Europe with how much time off. Where will they vacation? When will they retire? These are selfish questions, these are not altruistic questions. So the goodness that America created is jeopardized by our not knowing what we stand for. That's our greatest threat. We are our problem.

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

As a rule Uncle Giles took not the slightest interest in anyone or anything except himself and his own affairs—indeed was by this time all but incapable of absorbing even the smallest particle of information about others, unless such information had some immediate bearing on his own case.

Money can't change who we are. All it does is magnify our true natures. If you're mean and selfish, you have more to be mean and selfish with. If you're grateful and loving, you have more to appreciate and give.

when it comes to money, delusions that you're better than everybody else can kill you.

A man who lives much at a club is apt to fall into a selfish mode of life. He is taught to think that his own comfort should always be the first object. A man can never be happy unless his first objects are outside himself. Personal self-indulgence begets a sense of meanness which sticks to a man even when he has got beyond all hope of rescue.

Each lady was disposed to get as much and to give as little as possible —

The self-indulgent man craves for all pleasant things... and is led by his appetite to choose these at the cost of everything else.

Men do not become tyrants in order that they may not suffer cold.