Selfish quotes

Selfish

1.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

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Selfish quotes (page 10 of 65)

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Mark Twain Writer, Humorist
Selfish

"Word it as softly as you please, the spirit of patriotism is the spirit of the dog and wolf. The moment there is a misunderstanding about a boundary line or a hamper of fish or some other squalid matter, see patriotism rise, and hear him split the universe with is war-whoop. The spirit of patriotism being in its nature jealous and selfish, is just in man's line, it comes natural to him - he can live up to all its requirements to the letter; but the spirit of Christianity is not in its entirety possible to him."

War Dog Selfish
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Leader
Selfish

"Too unconcerned to love and too passionless to hate, too detached to be selfish and too lifeless to be unselfish, too indifferent to experience joy and too cold to express sorrow, they are neither dead nor alive; they merely exist."

Hate Joy Selfish
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Ludwig van Beethoven Composer, Pianist
Selfish

"The world is a king, and like a king, desires flattery in return for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse — it will not submit to the mold of flattery."

Art Kings Selfish
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Lydia Davis Author
Selfish

"There seemed to be three choices: to give up trying to love anyone, to stop being selfish, or to learn to love a person while continuing to be selfish."

Choices Giving Up Selfish
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Dalai Lama Spiritual Leader
Selfish

"If one's cause is supported by sound reasoning, there is no point in using violence. It is those who have no motive other than selfish desire and who cannot achieve their goal through logical reasoning who rely on force."

Goal Selfish Logical Reasoning
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C. S. Lewis Writer, Scholar
Selfish

"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 cruel people to the top, and then it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the machine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards, and then it breaks down."

Running Keys Selfish
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C. S. Lewis Writer, Scholar
Selfish

"A woman means by Unselfishness chiefly taking trouble for others; a man means not giving trouble to others...thus, while the woman thinks of doing good offices and the man of respecting other people's rights, each sex, without any obvious unreason, can and does regard the other as radically selfish."

Mean Sex Selfish
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Abraham Lincoln Political Leader
Selfish

"So plain that no one, high or low, ever does mistake it, except in a plainly selfish way; for although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself."

Men Mistake Selfish
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David Bowie Musician, Actor
Selfish

"I think it all comes back to being very selfish as an artist. I mean, I really do just write and record what interests me and I do approach the stage shows in much the same way."

Writing Mean Selfish
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Denzel Washington Actor, Director
Selfish

"I'm selfish, I think. I think an artist has to be. I'm not worried about what people think. I play the parts that I find interesting. It'd bother me more to be just pigeonholed into doing what people think is ethical or that's boring to me. I don't pick parts with that in mind, I just find interesting stories. If it's interesting to me, then I do it."

Thinking Artist Selfish
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Clint Eastwood Actor, Director, Producer
Selfish

"As you get older you try to do things that please you more. You get a little more selfish. You start thinking I want to do things where I enjoy myself."

Thinking Trying Selfish
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Brian Tracy Author, Speaker
Selfish

"Being happy requires that you define your life in your own terms and then throw your whole heart into living your life to the fullest. In a way, happiness requires that you be perfectly selfish in order to develop yourself to a point where you can be unselfish for the rest of your life."

Heart Life Selfish
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Albert Camus Philosopher, Writer
Selfish

"The act of love . . . is a confession. Selfishness screams aloud, vanity shows off, or else true generosity reveals itself."

Love Selfish Vanity
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Albert Einstein Physicist
Selfish

"Humiliation and mental oppression by ignorant and selfish teachers wreak havoc in the youthful mind that can never be undone and often exert a baleful influence in later life."

Teacher Selfish Ignorant
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Albert Camus Philosopher, Writer
Selfish

"A liking for truth at any cost is a passion that spares nothing and that nothing resists. It's a vice, at times a comfort, or a selfishness."

Passion Selfish Comfort
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Ayn Rand Philosopher, Novelist
Selfish

"Love is an expression and assertion of self-esteem, a response to one's own values in the person of another. One gains a profoundly personal, selfish joy from the mere existence of the person one loves. It is one's own personal, selfish happiness that one seeks, earns, and derives from love."

Love Selfish Self Esteem
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