Quotes About Selfishness

The real Machiavellian, like the infant, believes there is nothing bigger or more important than him or herself. To succeed, you will need to achieve that view, to return to the liberating egocentrism of the selfish, amoral child who wants what he wants and permits nothing to get in its way.

Puoi credere che quegli anni fossero soltanto difficili, oppure che siano stati gli anni peggiori della storia del mondo. In cui il mondo invecchiò di colpo. E prese della vecchiaia l'egoismo e la disperazione, non la saggezza e la generosità.

Anyhow, she knew when she looked into her heart she'd never really wanted kids anyhow. She'd seen how kids dropped from the sky and exploded people's lives like squalling neutron bombs. She was honest enough to admit she was too selfish for that; her life, her only life, was her own.

The man was a case study for those fools who believed that a politician's character didn't matter as long as he was on their side. The truth was that Kalugin had no side but his own: he was as ready to devour his supporters as he was his enemies.

That's what Nick ran into all the time on the streets. Somehow in America it had stopped being about us or we or the team or the family; it was this me-thing that turned people crazy. They expected so much. They thought they were so important. Everybody was an only child.

Almost every sinful action ever committed can be traced back to a selfish motive. It is a trait we hate in other people but justify in ourselves.

Sometimes the only thing to do is to take the thing that you must have. Even if someone gets hurt.

Rich people can be generous, even the ones with bloodcurdling political views can be generous, but most believe in generosity on their own terms, and underneath (not so deep, either), they're always afraid someone is going to steal their presents and eat their birthday cake.

Why is it that so many people think all the answers are in their wallet?

I think you're a taker. You've always been one. It's like God left some part of you out when He built you inside of me.

The reason authors almost always put a dedication on a book is, because their selfishness even horrifies themselves in the end.

People have many ways to be lousy to one another, as you'll find out when you're older, but I think that all bad behavior stems from plain old selfishness.

Harold glared sullenly at him again, the eyes those of a piggy little boy who wants the whole cookie jar to himself. Ain't he going to be surprised, Stu thought, when he finds out a girl isn't a jar of cookies.

Maybe you receive pain selfishly — thinking only of yourself. The cycle of pain wounds every participant

Better or worse, we are living such a fallacious world, where people like to seek their own interests in in others' matters.

Selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either.

Every moral act of love, of mercy, and of sacrifice brings to pass the end of the world where hatred, cruelty, and selfishness reign supreme.

True debauchery is liberating because it creates no obligations. In it you possess only yourself, hence it remains the favorite pastime of the great lovers of their own person.

It's usually the selfish people who are loved the most. They do what you deny yourself, and you love them for it. You give them your heart.

Pity the selfishness of lovers: it is brief, a forlorn hope; it is impossible.

As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.

Too many people follow their own happiness without a thought for the damage they leave in their wake.

Fear's greatest weapon is its ability to blind one to anything. In its presence, we forget there are others to consider, things to save besides ourselves.

Behind every act of altruism, heroism, and human decency you'll find either selfishness or stupidity.