Top 100 Quotes About The Selfish
#1. That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended - civilizations are built up - excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and the cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin.
C.S. Lewis
#2. But have you never noticed that when one has been trying to do something really good one is much nearer committing some special sin than when one keeps on in the selfish, matter-of-fact prudence of minding one's own business, and that alone?
Geraldine Jewsbury
#3. No doubt this works well enough for The Tale of Benjamin Bunny or The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but I can readily see that 'The Selfish Gene' on its own, without the large footnote of the book itself, might give an inadequate impression of its contents.
Richard Dawkins
#4. I can't love him. I don't. This feeling is not the selfish, grasping need that I've seen tear apart my family, writhing through heir hearts like worms through rotten apples.
Rosamund Hodge
#6. Nobody prays for the heartless, nobody gives another penny for the selfish
Pierce The Veil
#7. Eternal Trinity ... mystery deep as the sea, You could give me no greater gift than the gift of Yourself. For You are a fire ever burning and never consumed, which itself consumes all the selfish love that fills my being ...
St. Catherine Of Siena
#8. All suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their own happiness or satisfaction
Dalai Lama XIV
#9. It is the ignorant person who seeks his or her own ends at the expense of the greater whole. It is the ignorant person, therefore, who is the selfish person. The truly wise person is never selfish.
Ralph Waldo Trine
#10. The Selfish Gene - he set off decades of debate by declaring: We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.
James Gleick
#11. Tis rushing now adown the spout,
And gushing out below,
Half frantic in its joyousness,
And wild in eager flow.
The earth is dried and parched with heat,
And it hath long'd to be
Released from out the selfish cloud,
To cool the thirsty tree.
Elizabeth Oakes Smith
#12. The selfish leader will attempt to lead others for their own gain and for the detriment of others.
Tom Peters
#13. There is only one all pervading God. It has only one message - Love all, encompass all and transcend the limits of the selfish gene.
Amit Ray
#14. The young are often accused of exaggerating their troubles; they do so, very often, in the hope of making some impression upon the inertia and the immovability of the selfish old.
Robertson Davies
#15. It's not about the fish; it's not about the pollution; it's not about the climate change. It's about us and our greed and our need for growth and our inability to imagine a world that is different from the selfish world we live in today.
Jeremy Jackson
#16. The voice of nature and experience seems plainly to oppose the selfish theory.
David Hume
#17. I respect all the innocent souls because they are kind enough to forgive the selfish people around them.
Saurabh Sharma
#18. A picture of human life such as a great artist can give, surprises even the trivial and the selfish into that attention to what is apart from themselves, which may be called the raw material of moral sentiment.
George Eliot
#19. Amaziah, the high priest, for it is, after all, the selfish religious establishment which has led the people into this institutionalized and meaningless form of religion.
Anonymous
#20. the implied Shakespeare is thoroughly engaged with life, and he does not conceal his judgment on the selfish, the foolish, and the cruel.
Wayne C. Booth
#21. If it were evenly distributed," said Rodman, "the example of justice in the world might lead at last to a sane world policy. As it is, there is world despair and fury over the selfish fortune of a few, and all behave irrationally in revenge.
Isaac Asimov
#22. The selfish man cuts away the sand from under his own feet, he digs his own grave; and every time, from the beginning of the world until now, God Almighty pushes him into the grave and covers him up.
Charles Henry Fowler
#23. The selfish man suffers more from his selfishness than he from whom that selfishness withholds some important benefit.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#24. What a cage is to the wild beast, law is to the selfish man.
Herbert Spencer
#25. 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
#26. For a government,' said the god, 'is nothing but a mirror of your minds--tyrannical for tyrants--hypocritical for hypocrites --corrupt for those who are indifferent--extravagant and wasteful for the selfish--strong and honorable only toward honest men.
Talbot Mundy
#27. Paradox is beloved of novelists. The despised savior, the humane whore, the selfish man suddenly munificent, the wise fool, and the cowardly hero. Most writers spend their lives writing about unexpected malice in the supposedly virtuous, and unexpected virtue in the supposedly sinful.
Thomas Keneally
#28. The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.
Thomas Jefferson
#29. Think about all the selfish non-smokers out there, driving around on asphalt, drinking water out of the tap, not even thinking about how smokers' taxes help pay for it all.
George Singleton
#30. Every day I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence that will risk nothing and which, shirking pain, misses happiness as well.
Mary Cholmondeley
#31. Our minds, unedited by guilt or shame, are not for public consumption, because they would either be hurtful or else just make us look like the selfish and unkind bastards we are. We don't share thoughts, we share carefully sanitized, watered-down versions of them.
Jonathan Tropper
#32. Advertising is the place where the selfish interests of the manufacturer coincide with the interests of society.
David Ogilvy
#33. The enemy of the spirit is the selfish ego, which thinks that happiness can be gained through causing unhappiness and disharmony to others. In many ancient languages, the word for enemy means "one who falls out of rhythm; one who is not working in harmony with the larger group."
Sharon Gannon
#34. the selfish gladly consoled themselves with the thought that though it was merciful at least it was not liberal;
Karl Polanyi
#35. Our faith should be expressed in working toward a better planet for our children and not the selfish, juvenile hope for a better afterlife for ourselves. I don't think anyone is going to Hell, because it only exists in the minds of people who wish ill will on others.
Greg Graffin
#36. Battered and bruised but still fighting for dominance his was not the selfish petty pride that made bullies of lesser men but rather the quiet
determined dignity that turned men into heroes and made heroes crawl back to their feet from the bitter dust of defeat and stand tall once more.
C.L. Wilson
#37. It is the selfish parents who are to blame. Pay attention, be involved in your children's lives. They are your legacy, your only hope.
Aaron B. Powell
#38. The only thing that was sharper and that scarred more was the selfish actions of those you loved when they made it crystal clear that they cared more for themselves than they did for you. Especially when it was someone you trusted to always put you first.
Sherrilyn Kenyon
#39. I always said if it gets to a point where I really want a child, I would adopt; kids are amazing, so I'm getting the selfish stuff out of my system so when I have them I can say, 'Go, run. I have plenty of money, go play.'
Sandra Bullock
#40. It is a terrible thing to feel sorry for one's mother or indeed father. And it's an additionally awful thing to feel this and to know the impotence of the adolescent to do anything at all about it. Worse still, perhaps, is the selfish consolation that it isn't really one's job to rear one's parents.
Christopher Hitchens
#41. The martyr sacrifices themselves entirely in vain. Or rather not in vain; for they make the selfish more selfish, the lazy more lazy, the narrow narrower.
Florence Nightingale
#42. In this world, whenever there is light, there are also shadows. As long as the concept of winners exist, there must also be losers. The selfish desire of wanting to maintain peace causes wars and hatred is born to protect love.
Masashi Kishimoto
#43. It's an absurd request. Our minds, unedited by guilt or shame, are selfish and unkind, and the majority of our thoughts, at any given time, are not for public consumption, because they would either be hurtful or else just make us look like the selfish and unkind bastards we are.
Jonathan Tropper
#44. The selfish part of me, however, couldn't fathom not falling asleep in his arms or being with him every day. I needed TJ, and the thought of being away from him bothered me more than I wanted to admit.
Tracey Garvis-Graves
#45. I was raised on the brothers Grimm, but my favorite fairy tales in the world are Oscar Wilde's - 'The Nightingale and the Rose,' 'The Selfish Giant.' The latter is probably my all-time favorite.
Denis O'Hare
#46. The love of money is the source of an enormous amount of good; the fact that the good is a by-product of the selfish pursuit of riches has nothing to do with its indisputable value.
Leo Rosten
#47. Kind people who put others before themselves would be the first to die. It was the ruthless and the selfish who would survive.
Hyeonseo Lee
#48. The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people.
Charles Trevelyan
#49. You just think we live in a free country, Everett. We are at the mercy of greed and the selfish pursuit of wealth.
D.J. Israel
#50. Purely altruistic behavior is pretty much impossible because of the selfish pleasures we derive from it.
Nicholas Kristof
#51. I don't actually think 'The Selfish Gene' is a very good title. I think that's one of my worst titles.
Richard Dawkins
#52. I feel strongly that it is the selfish person who needs to change, not the selfless person. (Zhang)
Derald Wing Sue
#53. Religion is about integration, about successfully bringing the selfish ego into line with the centre of the personality where God exists, as a divine spark, in every human being. Religion is about helping man to live in harmony with his true self and to become the person God's designed him to be.
Susan Howatch
#54. The selfish mind is the distracted mind and the distracted mind is the easily oppressed mind.
Selena Gomez
#55. Marriage is no way of life for the weak, the selfish, or the insecure.
Sidney Poitier
#56. Every year that I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence which will risk nothing, and which, shirking pain, misses happiness as well. - Mary Cholmondeley
Robin S. Sharma
#58. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.
Richard Dawkins
#59. I will always miss the person I
thought U are. But not the selfish,
unkind, insensitive and heartless
person U turned out to be.
Lily Amis
#61. 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.
Saul Bellow
#62. We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.* 12
Richard Dawkins
#63. Nature may be as selfishly studied as trade. Astronomy to the selfish becomes astrology; psychology, mesmerism (with intent to show where aour spoons are gone); and anatomy and physiology become phrenology and palmistry.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#64. The world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars and the selfish hide in high places. (p 57)
Bryant McGill
#65. Generous and authentic leadership will always defeat the selfish efforts of someone doing it just because she can. How
Seth Godin
#66. Be weary of the selfish givers, those who do something for a hidden fee.
Nikki Rowe
#67. Selfishness and demagoguery take advantage of liberty. The selfish hand constantly seeks to control government, and every increase of governmental power, even to meet just needs, furnishes opportunity for abuse and stimulates the effort to bend it to improper uses.
Charles Evans Hughes
#68. The secret is...good and evil are a myth. There is only the selfish, selfless, and those in between.
Belart Wright
#69. What passes for love is imperfect knowledge. Not knowing, initially, allows faithlessness to dress up as its opposite; casts the inarticulate as enigmatic, the selfish as forgetful, the angry as impassioned.
Nick Laird
#70. They, the selfish ones, are like spiritual lame people who use other beings as crutches to walk on the path of life. And they are the Blind of Spirit who never find Love, because they do not know how to love and do not let themselves be loved
Ivan Figueroa-Otero
#71. I find that the crazy narcissists, the selfish loons are often the most fun to be around, weirdly.
Paul Giamatti
#72. What is Above is Within ... the Circumference is Winthin, Without is formed the Selfish Center, and the Circumference still expands going forward to Eternity.
William Blake
#73. The selfish thing about an athlete is you always look at the side of things where you say I could've done that better.
Andy Roddick
#74. Some of us -" She paused as she sought the words. " - don't die unless we want to. The selfish ones never do.
Alex Bledsoe
#75. Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene is a classic example of science fiction.
Pope Benedict XVI
#76. We look at death from the selfish side, like: "That guy died. Oh, it's so sad." Why is it sad? He's away from all of this bad stuff that's here on Earth. I mean, at the worst, he's just somewhere quiet, no nothing. At best, he's an angel ... or he's a spirit somewhere. What is so bad about that?
Tupac Shakur
#77. * The vermine is a small black-and-white relative of the lemming, found in the cold Hublandish regions. Its skin is rare and highly valued, especially by the vermine itself; the selfish little bastard will do anything rather than let go of it.
Terry Pratchett
#78. Oh Lord, I've been so selfish, so consumed with myself I haven't been able to see anyone else's pain but my own. I've let anger blind me. I've let self-righteousness stop me in my tracks and keep me from having the kind of relationship with you that I want. I need to let it go.
Lynette Eason
#79. I'm a selfish football player. Each time the ball is snapped, I tell myself that I want to make that tackle, make that big play.
Jevon Kearse
#80. You do have to be fairly selfish when you have a gift. You cannot afford to let too many outside things get in the way.
Sarah Brightman
#81. All too often I try to skate away from the things I'm afraid of and things I don't like and am unwilling to accept. I'm selfish and difficult to handle. I give my men cause for concern. I worry them, but they haven't given up on me yet and I love them all the more for it.
Gillibran Brown
#82. I started my Twitter account for selfish reasons: I wanted to have a place to post updates on my book signing tour and stuff like that. I never realized that I'd have so much fun tweeting. It's become the deleted scenes for my DVD of columns and podcasts.
Bill Simmons
#83. Asked why we should strive to know God, my answer would be selfish: I want to be a creator. This is the ultimate promise of spirituality, that you can become the author of your own existence, the maker of personal destiny. Your brain is already performing this service for you unconsciously.
Deepak Chopra
#84. If we are selfish and we feel cranky, then we believe that nobody has the right to be happy around us.
Miguel Ruiz
#85. When you talk of not wanting children, it is impossible to avoid sounding defensive, like you're trying to prove the questionable beauty of a selfish and too-tidy existence.
Meghan Daum
#86. While we may not be called to martyr our lives, we must martyr our way of life. We must put our selfish ways to death and march to a different beat. Then the world will see Jesus.
Michael Tait
#87. We've been down the road of your hasty exits too many times, Mrs. Danvers. You married your master, and you married a sadist--of your own free will. You might remember that when you're tempted to walk out in a huff, defy my orders, and behave like a selfish brat. You got that?
Lizbeth Dusseau
#88. The actions driven by fear and guilt are not an antidote to lukewarm, selfish, comfortable living. I hope you realize that the answer is love.
Francis Chan
#90. We mourn for the dead, but it's a selfish act. It may be a tragedy that so many young lives are lost to us, but it's our tragedy alone because they are at peace.
Jenny Penn
#91. No clouds gathered in the skies and the polluted streams became clear, whilst celestial music rang through the air and the angels rejoiced with gladness. With no selfish or partial joy but for the sake of the law they rejoiced, for creation engulfed in the ocean of pain was now to obtain release.
Gautama Buddha
#92. I stopped for a moment, biting the inside of my cheek. This was the hardest part. I want to be first. I know that's selfish, and maybe unattainable, and maybe shallow. But I just want to come first with someone. If that's wrong, so be it. I'll be wrong. But that's the way I feel.
Charlaine Harris
#93. Through recognizing and realizing the empty essence, instead of being selfish and self-centered, one feels very open and free
Tsoknyi Rinpoche
#94. The brittle bones beneath my chest cracked, piercing my heart. It was you who breathed new life into my lungs and it was you who would later syphon the life you had given so as to feed your selfish desires
Sonya Watson
#95. All your stress, pain, suffering, misery is due to your attachment with it. If you don't attach with the things, that doesn't serve you, either in your internal or external life, slowly those things lose grip on you, and you release yourself from it forever.
Roshan Sharma
#96. The word lust [can] mean "selfish desire." ... It is wanting something so badly you will do anything to get it. That is one of the tricks of the devil. It is too high a price to pay.
Billy Graham
#97. There are precious lessons deep in the stench of failure and the filth of selfish choices.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
#98. Not having children is seen as supremely selfish, as though the people having children were selflessly sacrificing themselves in a valiant attempt to ensure the survival of our endangered species and fill up this vast and underpopulated island of ours.
Geoff Dyer
#99. Too often there is this sinister greed that pulls at my coattails, subtly whispering in the ear of my soul that it is within my rights to tuck away a few dark trinkets to toy with when the tedium of righteous living gets a bit boring. But God would suggest that I empty my pockets.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
#100. Every woman I have known has actually deepened my spiritual awareness. Even if I have been a selfish man and treated them badly ... There were two women, I won't name them, who had a powerful religious effect on me. The ancient idea of a muse is there.
John Tavener
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