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selfishness quotes

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“SELFISH, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
“Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.” Honoré de Balzac, Letters of Two Brides
“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. And unselfishness is letting other people’s lives alone, not interfering with them.” Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism
“Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure.” Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
“selflessness and bravery aren't all that different.” Veronica Roth, Divergent
“We make allowance for a certain degree of selfishness in men; because we know it to be inseparable from human nature, and inherent in our frame and constitution.” David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
“Is it not sufficient for your infernal selfishness, that while you are at peace I shall writhe in the torments of hell?” Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
“Nearly everyone in the world has appetites and impulses, trigger emotions, islands of selfishness, lusts just beneath the surface.” John Steinbeck, East of Eden
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made...” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
“Love is the most selfish of all the passions.” Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
“so many unscrupulous people have got hold of the progressive cause of late and have so distorted in their own interests everything they touched, that the whole cause has been dragged in the mire.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
“Every successful man is more or less a selfish man.” Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
“You know, Emily was a selfish old woman in her way. She was very generous, but she always wanted a return. She never let people forget what she had done for them—and, that way she missed love.” Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles
“I’m an egotist, but I’m not selfish. There’s a difference. I’m a neurotic, I guess. I can’t stop thinking about myself. It isn’t that I think myself so important... I simply can’t think about anything else, that’s all.” Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
“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.” C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“To pity the unfortunate is not contrary to lust. On the contrary, we can quite well give such evidence of friendship, and acquire the reputation of kindly feeling, without giving anything. ” Blaise Pascal, Pensées
“PRAY, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
“What heroes like best is themselves.” Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic
“I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
“In selfish men caution is as secure an armour for their foes as for themselves.” Bram Stoker, Dracula
“Go to the moon — you selfish dreamer!” Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

Related topics

love self success women men passion bravery living politics peace dream hypocrisy universe forgiveness caution hell care protection emotions pity

Related authors

Jane Austen (2)
Ambrose Bierce (2)
Oscar Wilde (1)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
C. S. Lewis (1)
John Steinbeck (1)
Blaise Pascal (1)
Terry Pratchett (1)
Bram Stoker (1)
Henry Miller (1)
David Hume (1)
Alexandre Dumas (1)
Thomas Hardy (1)
Agatha Christie (1)
Tennessee Williams (1)
Veronica Roth (1)
Honoré de Balzac (1)
Emily Brontë (1)

Related sources

The Devil's Dictionary (2)
The Soul of Man under Socialism (1)
Pride and Prejudice (1)
East of Eden (1)
Dracula (1)
Wuthering Heights (1)
Tropic of Cancer (1)
The Great Gatsby (1)
Crime and Punishment (1)
Mansfield Park (1)
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1)
The Three Musketeers (1)
The Glass Menagerie (1)
The Screwtape Letters (1)
Letters of Two Brides (1)
A Treatise of Human Nature (1)
Jude the Obscure (1)
Pensées (1)
Divergent (1)
The Colour of Magic (1)