Selfish quotes

Selfish

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

1.3K quotes

Explore further

Browse quotes that often appear alongside selfish — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.

Quote collection

Selfish quotes (page 8 of 65)

Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.

Elizabeth Oakes Smith Author, Poet
Selfish

"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."

Read quote 9 likes
Alan Cohen Author
Selfish

"It is not selfish to be happy. It is your highest purpose. Your joy is the greatest contribution you can make to life on the planet. A heart at peace with its owner blesses everyone it touches."

Read quote 9 likes
Anne Bronte Author
Selfish

"I was sorry for her; I was amazed, disgusted at her heartless vanity; I wondered why so much beauty should be given to those who made so bad a use of it, and denied to some who would make it a benefit to both themselves and others. But, God knows best, I concluded. There are, I suppose, some men as vain, as selfish, and as heartless as she is, and, perhaps, such women may be useful to punish them."

Read quote 9 likes
Ayn Rand Philosopher, Novelist
Selfish

"To love is to value. Only a rationally selfish man, a man of self esteem, is capable of love - because he is the only man capable of holding firm, consistent, uncompromising, unbetrayed value. The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone"

Read quote 9 likes
Selfish

"God creates us free, free to be selfish, but He adds a mechanism that will penetrate our selfishness and wake us up to the presence of others in this world, and that mechanism is called suffering."

Read quote 9 likes
Selfish

"We receive mixed messages about taking good care of ourselves. Love thy neighbor as thyself means to love thyself and thy neighbor. Yet, self-love often is confused with selfishness and conceit. We are selfish when we do not love and accept ourselves, and attempt to take from others to fill the emptiness. Conceit indicates low self-worth and an attempt to conceal it. It is difficult to extend to others what you have not been able to give yourself. Take good care of yourself so you can care about the rest of us."

Read quote 9 likes
Joyce Meyer Author, Speaker
Selfish

"The term revolution means: a sudden, radical, and complete change from the way things are normally done. I love that definition because I really feel that in order for us to start walking in the kind of love that Christ commanded us to - the "love your neighbor as yourself" kind - it's going to take a radical change in our current behavior. The church has become passive and selfish and it's going to take a revolution to get us back to the place where we are not just talking the talk, but walking in a love that shows the world Christ's love."

Read quote 9 likes
John Muir Naturalist, Writer
Selfish

"How narrow we selfish conceited creatures are in our sympathies! How blind to the rights of all the rest of creation!"

Read quote 9 likes
Mortimer Adler Philosopher, Educator
Selfish

"It is love rather than sexual lust or unbridled sexuality if, in addition to the need or want involved, there is also some impulse to give pleasure to the persons thus loved and not merely to use them for our own selfish pleasure."

Read quote 9 likes
Cesar Romero Actor
Selfish

"Because of my age and because there's more work on the small screen. What it's missing in quality it makes up for in quantity. From an actor's selfish point of view."

Read quote 8 likes
Alec Baldwin Actor
Selfish

"My life, in some ways, has been a half-measure. I didn't commit myself all the way to my marriage and family, because I would have given up more. And I didn't go all the way with just being completely selfish. I always wonder where my career would be if I was more selfish."

Read quote 8 likes
Ralph Waldo Emerson Essayist, Philosopher, Poet
Selfish

"The men who carry their points do not need to inquire of their constituents what they should say, but are themselves the country which they represent: nowhere are its emotions or opinions so instant and so true as in them; nowhere so pure from a selfish infusion."

Read quote 8 likes