#altruism

I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy. ↗

— Kahlil Gibran

#gibran #giving #joy #life #service

Like, in general I think people have very complicated reasons for wanting things, and we often have no idea whether we’re actually motivated by altruism or a desire to hook up or a search for answers or what. I always get annoyed when in books or movies characters want clear things for clear reasons, because my experience of humanness is that I always want messy things for messy reasons. ↗

— John Green

#characters #desire #messy #experience

In the unceasing ebb and flow of justice and oppression we must all dig channels as best we may, that at the propitious moment somewhat of the swelling tide may be conducted to the barren places of life. ↗

— Jane Addams

#inspirational #justice #oppression #social-justice #inspirational

The most altruistic and sustainable philosophies fail before the brute brain stem imperative of self-interest. ↗

— Peter Watts

#brutality #life-philosophy #self-interest #life

We have so far to go to realize our human potential for compassion, altruism, and love. ↗

— Jane Goodall

#compassion #humanity #love #love

Lawyers are alright, I guess — but it doesn't appeal to me", I said. "I mean they're alright if they go around saving innocent guys' lives all the time, and like that, but you don't do that kind of stuff if you're a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot. And besides, even if you did go around saving guys' lives and all, how would you know if you did it because you really wanted to save guys' lives, or because you did it because what you really wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer, with everybody slapping you on the back and congratulating you in court when the goddam trial was over, the reporters and everybody, the way it is in the dirty movies? How would you know you weren't being a phony? The trouble is you wouldn't. ↗

— J.D. Salinger

#holden-caulfield #phonies #the-catcher-in-the-rye #movies

Perhaps the most legitimately dispiriting thing about reciprocal altruism is that it is a misnomer. Whereas with kin selection the "goal" of our genes is to actually help another organism, with reciprocal altruism the goal is that the organism be left under the impression that we've helped; the impression alone is enough to bring the reciprocation. ↗

— Robert Wright

#evolution #natural-selection #reciprocity #nature

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. ↗

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

#creative #darkness #decide #destructive #every

I'm not a legend or a hero, I don't slay dragons, I don't do any of the things that a real hero can. But I can make things better, one day at a time, for most of the kingdom. ↗

— Mercedes Lackey

#heroes #heroism #heroism

I would rather be kept alive in the efficient if cold altruism of a large hospital than expire in a gush of warm sympathy in a small one. ↗

— Aneurin Bevan

#altruism #cold #efficient #expire #gush