Top 100 Quotes About Altruism
#1. Force, governmental coercion, is the instrument by which the ethics of altruism - the belief that the individual exists to serve others - is translated into political reality.
Nathaniel Branden
#2. Altruism is the surest and most effective way to bring about genuine life satisfaction.
Dalai Lama XIV
#3. The things that trip a person into love aren't the grand, sweeping traits you expect (must adore Waugh, display altruism, respect my space). The truly endearing properties are the small and apparently trivial gestures and habits that differentiate us one from another.
S.A. Jones
#4. Feelings, rationale and values are the top qualities that make a person exceedingly human.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#6. [Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner belonged to] that small army of brave people who made it their duty, without thought of themselves or hope or expectation of reward, to strive for unpopular causes.
[Chapman Cohen on the death of noted freethinker and peace advocate Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner]
Chapman Cohen
#7. With true love, you can move mountains, make unusual sacrifices, live a life of deprivations and still be happy.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#8. Just as altruism tells an individual that however much he is sacrificing, his duty is to sacrifice more, the Progressives concluded that however much Americans were giving, morality required them to give more.
Yaron Brook
#9. If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject.
Ayn Rand
#10. It is the sincere horror of it that gets others motivated, so say Watson and Andrews; the dysfunction caused by the onset of depression may serve a useful function in that it is a device for the elicitation of altruism.
Andrew Solomon
#11. People were the same everywhere, no matter what lofty vows they proclaimed. Help was given only in the hope of its being reciprocated. Expectations of reward lurked behind every act of altruism.
Steven Erikson
#12. Who is a Jew? A person whose integrity decays when unmoved by the knowledge of wrong done to other people.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
#13. A gene might be able to assist replicas of itself that are sitting in other bodies. If so, this would appear as individual altruism but it would be brought about by gene selfishness.
Richard Dawkins
#14. The practice of cultivating altruism has a beneficial effect not only from the religious point of view but also from the mundane point of view, not only for long term spiritual development but even in terms of immediate rewards.
Dalai Lama XIV
#15. I suppose the spiritual trance is harder to break than the religious one because the delusion is more difficult to distinguish. You have a quasi-cloud of ideas that include wonderful concepts of openness and altruism without the blatant anthropomorphism of religion.
Christopher Zzenn Loren
#16. We have a special name, here, for a certain kind of failure to defer to the greater good - for putting a personal sense of doing right above any objective measure of the outcome. It's called 'moral vanity'.
Greg Egan
#17. Most sound minds resent flattery, because they see the egotism behind the screen of altruism.
Fulton J. Sheen
#18. We do things in life to make others happy. We make sacrifices because that feeling - the one I once thought was altruism, but have since learned is just love - it makes us feel good. We give, but it's never selfless.
Ginger Scott
#19. The only thing altruism will get you here is a boot stomping on your head.
Henry Mosquera
#20. The best thing about having money is that you can use it to help someone else.
Marty Rubin
#21. Kindness is a source of relief to the soul of the giver, creating a sense of fortitude that is incomprehensible to those who do not know what kindness is all about.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#23. Authentic happiness can only come from the long-term cultivation of wisdom, altruism, and compassion, and from the complete eradication of mental toxins, such as hatred, grasping, and ignorance.
Carmine Gallo
#24. Selfishness beats altruism within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups. Everything else is commentary.
David Sloan Wilson
#25. The basis of love that most people share is the intimacy they developed with their partners, the intensity of their attraction, or the similarity of their thought patterns,
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#26. They are surprised that he did it, though, which shows you that the male mind expects very little in the way of altruism from it's fellows.
Stephen King
#27. In both the global community and the family, human beings need harmony and cooperation, which comes through mutual respect. Altruism is the most crucial factor.
Dalai Lama XIV
#28. What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?
Winston Churchill
#29. Poverty of young men alone behind the
stairways, who practice
alchemy inside bottle caps, who know
the altruism of a last syringe.
Jim Carroll
#30. Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others.
Brian Tracy
#31. The smallest, earliest gifts forever alter your trajectory for doing good. This is what I mean by the compound interest of altruism. Start early to maximize the compound interest in your efforts.
Biz Stone
#32. It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself,
than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all
connected with you.
Charlotte Bronte
#33. Altruism does not mean mere kindness or generosity, but the sacrifice of the best among men to the worst, the sacrifice of virtues to flaws, of ability to incompetence, of progress to stagnation-and the subordinating of all life and of all values to the claims of anyone's suffering.
Ayn Rand
#34. The dignity we create in the time allotted to us becomes a continuum with the dignity we achieve by the altruism of accepting the necessity of death.
Sherwin B. Nuland
#35. I'm not a legend or a hero, I don't slay dragons, I don't do any of the things that a real hero can. But I can make things better, one day at a time, for most of the kingdom.
Mercedes Lackey
#36. I had always thought that the 'good,' and the 'bad' and the 'violent' did not exist in any absolute, essential sense. It seemed to me interesting to demystify these adjectives in the setting of a Western. An assassin can display a sublime altruism while a good man can kill with total indifference.
Sergio Leone
#37. I think preconceived ideas or prejudgments are meant to give us an edge whenever we are dealing with others we don't know or haven't made the effort to understand.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#38. True heroes don't fall. They only encounter temporary setbacks as they forge ahead towards progress.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#39. Empathy, as we have seen, leads to caring, altruism, and compassion. Seeing things from another's perspective breaks down biased stereotypes, and so breeds tolerance and acceptance of differences.
Daniel Goleman
#40. A nationalist will blindly follow his country to his death out of love for it. A patriot will stand up for and even against his country to his death out of love for it.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#42. We need the wisdom to accept the fact that this world abounds with issues we cannot solve; and we need to part ways with those people, ideas and things that are a vexation to the soul.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#43. ...A canonical leader is someone whose exemplary rule might have appeared to be for the alleviation of the pains and miseries of a particular group, but which in reality is for the advancement of humanism...
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#44. Take a stand that reflects the widest horizons of your soul if you don't want to be a slave to external powers.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#45. True heroes and ideas never fall in the final sense of the word. They can only encounter temporary setbacks in their difficult journey to progress and success,
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#46. It takes a female to have a baby,
It takes a woman to raise a child,
It takes a mother to raise them correctly,
It takes a warrior to show them how to change the world.
Shannon L. Alder
#47. Most people live lives that are full of mysteries, lives whose ultimate purpose we may never really understand. But for the sake of serenity, we must believe in life's nobleness.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#49. Remember these, Sons! Truth presented with tenderness enriches the soul of man and enhances humanity in the process. A Franco-Cameroonian relation based on truth and nurtured with tenderness will be to the benefit not only of Kamerun and France, but also of mankind as a whole.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#50. Compassion, along with love, is the face of altruism.
Dalai Lama
#51. I want to feel proud and happy about my selflessness. But what happens when being selfless takes away a big part of your self?
Jaye Robin Brown
#52. Hold onto your creativity, that idealism that is rooted in some degree of innocence and a firm belief in something finer than the things we already have.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#53. Pharmaceutical companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in new HIV/AIDS treatments not out of altruism but because they can make up those research costs in sales.
David Mixner
#54. For many years, I tried to make New Year's resolutions. I made lists and shot for great heights: I would show altruism and exert moral strength, patience and all those other great attributes.
Henry Rollins
#55. Social Science ... led us to the fallacy that, since all men have their being in culture and as a result of culture, they owe a debt to that culture which even a lifetime of altruism could not repay.
David Riesman
#56. Huh! Mankind always comes up with ideas to make up for the follies of the status quo. But what happens if those ideas are inflexible and fail to respond to the changing times. They end up betraying the people who believed in them.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#57. Writers are the most tormented of all the different categories of artists that are out there in the world.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#58. The good shall prevail in the end, the truth shall be the rule and the Cameroonian soul shall be free," Hans said in an emotion-choked voice, "However, we should never lose our heads; we should always be prepared to forgive all the repentant souls.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#59. The person who works for recognition devalues the work he does, that awards are first and foremost political instruments, that altruism's true name is always Anonymous.
David Marusek
#60. There is a growing movement called effective altruism. It's important because it combines both the heart and the head.
Peter Singer
#61. Humans have long since possessed the tools for crafting a better world. Where love, compassion, altruism and justice have failed, genetic manipulation will not succeed.
Gina Maranto
#62. Altruism is the best source of happiness. There is no doubt about that.
Dalai Lama
#63. Altruism is for those who cannot endure their desires.
Mason Cooley
#64. You seem cynical because you're always talking about that selfish behavior that's dressed up as altruism. It doesn't mean there isn't altruism. It just means that it's harder to make jokes about altruism.
Stephen Colbert
#65. We have so far to go to realize our human potential for compassion, altruism, and love.
Jane Goodall
#66. She [Ayn Rand] had to declare that....altruism was despicable, that only self-interest is good and noble. (About Ayn Rand)
William F. Buckley Jr.
#67. When you are able to shift your inner awareness to how you can serve others, and when you make this the central focus of your life, you will then be in a position to know true miracles in your progress toward prosperity.
Wayne W. Dyer
#68. Will we rise to the challenge and prove our capacity for genuine altruism by ending our ruthless exploitation of the species in our power, not because we are forced to do so by rebels or terrorists, but because we recognize that our position is morally indefensible?
Peter Singer
#69. We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.
Herman Melville
#70. The collective delusion here is overwhelming narcissism posing as altruism.
David Rakoff
#71. If there is a human moral to be drawn, it is that we must teach our children altruism, for we cannot expect it to be part of their biological nature.
Richard Dawkins
#72. ...only the dreamers of a dream are capable of translating their dreams into worthy practical endeavors that are devoid of haunting errors. After all, they are the ones who carefully observed the link between their dreams and reality; they are the ones who worked consciously to blend them into one.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#73. Altruism is innate, but it's not instinctual. Everybody's wired for it, but a switch has to be flipped.
David Rakoff
#74. I am deeply in love with the world and its contents. My heartaches when I see any suffering so kindness and altruism is my ultimate way of life.
Debasish Mridha
#75. Capitalism and altruism are incompatible; they are philosophical opposites; they cannot co-exist in the same man or in the same society.
Ayn Rand
#76. I think we each come out of the womb with some unique way of looking at the world and if we don't express it, we loose faith in ourselves.
Gloria Steinem
#77. Ultimately humanity is one, and this small planet is our only home. If we're to protect this home of ours, each of us needs to experience a vivid sense of universal altruism and compassion.
Dalai Lama XIV
#79. Charity should be spontaneous. Calculated altruism is an affront.
Edward Abbey
#80. It is part of the business of marketing to muddy the distinction between altruism and cynicism.
Don Watson
#81. we can learn a lot from a tree; she
gives so much without expecting
anything in return. oxygen, shade,
fruit, resources. she is proud of her
roots and tough to tear down.
try to be more like a tree.
give without expectations, be
proud, be strong.
JaTawny Muckelvene Chatmon
#82. In the development of mankind as a whole, just as in individuals, love alone acts as the civilizing factor in the sense that it brings a change from egoism to altruism.
Sigmund Freud
#83. The selfish and self-centered have a hard time being kind, even though you and I know that kindness is a source of relief to the soul.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#85. all this immorality and opportunism, this was what characterised them, not altruism, as the stories they had spun would have you believe. But then, this is a world whose running fuel is anecdotes and stories, he reminds himself.
Neel Mukherjee
#86. Friendship is that form of altruism that takes its strides faster than anything else does.
Deepak Rana
#87. ...the act of kindness is an unselfish act, it is medicine for your soul...
Travis Culliton
#88. Love is the most complex of all human phenomena. It exists on a spectrum from tolerance and kindness to romantic love and self-sacrifice, reaching its pinnacle in altruism, a love that needs nothing in return.
Gudjon Bergmann
#89. The thing for us to do is just to do our duty, and not worry about whether anybody sees us do it or not.
Mark Twain
#90. In the world of today, human desires far supersede human needs. Waste, as you can see, is the result of all of those contradictions. That is how we ended up complicating our world.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#91. The mathematical challenge of finding the greatest good can expand the heart. Empathy opens the mind to suffering, and math keeps it open.
Derek Thompson
#92. It's in the nature of the humans and the entire animal kingdom to return blow for blow, cheating for cheating, lie for lie, to hit back with all our might. But what makes us true humans is the power to not hit back.
Abhijit Naskar
#93. ...True classical dropouts in society are those who avoid difficult challenges and cling to the first opportunity that comes their way. They never test their talents. These latent talents will only help to produce the next cycle of dropouts...
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#94. The most altruistic and sustainable philosophies fail before the brute brain stem imperative of self-interest.
Peter Watts
#95. One of the great issues in biology is the origin of altruism - of why you would do something for someone else that could hurt you - and Darwin posited that it might be rooted in maternal instinct, in sacrificing yourself for your children.
Isabella Rossellini
#96. What is nobler," she mused, turning over the photographs, "than to be a woman to whom every one turns, in sorrow or difficulty?
Virginia Woolf
#97. A humanitarian seldom makes a good lover. For a lover's world revolves around their lover, while a humanitarian's world revolves around the world.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
#98. Human ties are the greatest distorters of reality because they tend to conceal man's worst selfish instincts.
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
#99. Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equalled the carnage perpetrated by disciples of altruism.
Ayn Rand
#100. For thousands of years, human beings have been obsessed with beauty, truth, love, honor, altruism, courage, social relationships, art, and God. They all go together as subjective experiences, and it's a straw man to set God up as the delusion. If he is, then so is truth itself or beauty itself.
Deepak Chopra
