Top 60 Selfishness Quotes

To describe Peter Thiel as simply a libertarian wildly understates the case. His belief system is based on unapologetic selfishness and economic Darwinism.

The 20th century has been marked by cynicism, selfishness, greed, and the desire to please, all without changing the status quo. In the 21st century, we must resurrect solidarity and compassion.

We’re all basically made of the same stuff: generosity and selfishness, goodness and greed.

Many seniors understand that Social Security is social insurance as opposed to a program where we put money aside for our own retirement. But most elderly individuals think they’re getting their money back. So it isn’t selfishness as much as a misunderstanding.

If there were more temple work done in the Church, there would be less of selfishness, less of contention, less of demeaning others.

We can pay the ecological debt by changing economic models, and by giving up luxury consumption, setting aside selfishness and individualism, and thinking about the people and the planet Earth.

Cooking is, to me, the perfect fusion of generosity and selfishness, indeed the resolution of generosity and selfishness, the answer to my torn nature.

I like to think that my arrogance, impetuosity, impatience, selfishness and greed are the qualities that make me the lovable chap I am.

Very few people choose war. They choose selfishness and the result was war.

Romance is alive and well in America, but the 50 percent who can’t make it work fail because of selfishness. It gets down to that. You can’t oversimplify it because every situation is so complex.

We have to put an end to the culture of selfishness and corruption that allows greedy Wall Street banks and executives to rip off working people without any consequences.

Caution is the confidential agent of selfishness.

My desire for the part of Mammy was not dominated by selfishness for Hollywood has been good to me and I am grateful.

Good character consists of recognizing the selfishness that inheres in each of us and trying to balance it against the altruism to which we should all aspire. It is a difficult balance to strike, but no definition of goodness can be complete without it.

Our world is drowning in a sea of self-centeredness. You can make yourself quite unique right away by leaving this ocean of selfishness and choosing to be curious about other people.

I have freedom. But freedom means total selfishness. It means nobody cares much what you do.

The organization and constant onward sweep of this movement exemplifies the resentment of the many toward the selfishness, greed and the neglect of the few.

Selfishness, narcissism, being uncomfortable in your own skin, not feeling connected to the world around you, feeling dislocated from family and youth, having a strange relationship with your childhood – all those things feel really true to me.

When old people in power scold children and young people for ‘selfishness’ if they don’t get triple-vaxxed, or if they let their mask slip below their nose occasionally, or try to have some fun in the sun, it’s obvious who actually is being selfish.

As a father now, I wouldn’t do what my dad did, because it left me feeling emotionally unstable as a kid. But he didn’t do the things he did out of selfishness or malice.

Selfishness is one of the more common faces of pride. ‘How everything affects me’ is the center of all that matters – self-conceit, self-pity, worldly self-fulfillment, self-gratification, and self-seeking.

Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion.

Being sorry is the highest act of selfishness, seeing value only after discarding it.

Abortion and racism are both symptoms of a fundamental human error. The error is thinking that when someone stands in the way of our wants, we can justify getting that person out of our lives. Abortion and racism stem from the same poisonous root, selfishness.

Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak.

Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.

The poison of selfishness destroys the world.

If selfishness is the key to being miserable, then selflessness must be the key to being happy!

Selfishness is a quality and not necessarily a bad thing.

I think for anyone who follows the ‘artistic life,’ a certain amount of selfishness and self-involvement is part of the package. You’re probably already disregarding a certain material life you could have.

Some say I’m selfish. My approach is the complete opposite of selfishness.

On immigration, Europe is in danger of displaying the worst of itself: selfishness, haphazard decision-making and rows between member states.

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

Undoubtedly there are, in connection with each of these things, cases of fraud, swindling, and other financial crimes; that is to say, the greed and selfishness of men are perpetual.

Human nature must have come much nearer perfection than it is now, or will be in many generations, to exclude from such a control prejudice, selfishness, ambition, and injustice.

When you objectively observe the most spiritual area to which modern people devote themselves, the religions, ask yourself if the basis of modern culture, particularly in religion, is not human self-interest. It is typical of modern sermons that the preacher criticizes people for their selfishness.

Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil – or else an absolute ignorance.

The ruling of men is the effort to direct the individual actions of many persons toward some end. This end theoretically should be the greatest good of all, but no human group has ever reached this ideal because of ignorance and selfishness.

The history of Rome presents various men of greater genius than Scipio Aemilianus, but none equalling him in moral purity, in the utter absence of political selfishness, in generous love of his country, and none, perhaps, to whom destiny has assigned a more tragic part.

There are points in your life, especially if you have creative ambitions, where selfishness is necessary.

We need leadership that can elevate religion and morality to their position of paramount importance and thus eliminate growing selfishness, immorality and materialism.

When you objectively observe the most spiritual area to which modern people devote themselves, the religions, ask yourself if the basis of modern culture, particularly in religion, is not human self-interest. It is typical of modern sermons that the preacher criticizes people for their selfishness.

We might not object to the statement that Lear deserved to suffer for his folly, selfishness and tyranny; but to assert that he deserved to suffer what he did suffer is to do violence not merely to language but to any healthy moral sense.

Twin-sister of Religion, Selfishness.

We have observed that, in society and the world in which we live, selfishness has increased more than love for others, and that men of good will must work, each with his own strengths and expertise, to ensure that love for others increases until it is equal and possibly exceeds love for oneself.

The desert Arab found no joy like the joy of voluntarily holding back. He found luxury in abnegation, renunciation, self restraint. He made nakedness of the mind as sensuous as nakedness of the body. He saved his own soul, perhaps, and without danger, but in a hard selfishness.

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.

Humans are selfish, and because of our innate selfishness, I’m very confident that we can overcome any amount of environmental destruction.

We found evolution will punish you if you’re selfish and mean. For a short time and against a specific set of opponents, some selfish organisms may come out ahead. But selfishness isn’t evolutionarily sustainable.

Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.

Basketball is the opposite of selfishness, basketball is solely about giving and sharing and caring for one another.

To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.

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

I have a responsibility to my fellow my community, to my fellow man, and woman. With that said, I create from a place of selfishness, but I’m also cognizant of potential impact on others. And I try to make that impact positive.

The sin which is indulged to the greatest extent, which separates us from God and produces so many spiritual disorders, and which are contagious, is selfishness.

I think marriage becomes a great mirror. My selfishness comes out in my marriage all the time.