#selfish

Nature is infinitely rich and diverse in her ways. She can be seen to break her most unchanging laws. She has made self-interest the motive of all human action, but in the great host of men she produces ones who are strangely constituted, in whom selfishness is scarcely perceptible because they do not place their affections in themselves. Some are passionate about the sciences, others about the public good. They are as attached to the discoveries of others as if they themselves had made them, or to the institutions of public welfare and the state as if they derived benefit from them. This habit of not thinking of themselves influences the whole course of their lives. They don't know how to use other men for their profit. Fortune offers them opportunities which they do not think of taking up. In nearly all men the self is almost never inactive. You will detect their self-interest in nearly all the advice they give you, in the services they do for you, in the contacts they make, in the friendships they form. They are deeply attached to the things which affect their interests however remotely, and are indifferent to all others. When they encounter a man who is indifferent to personal interest they cannot understand him. They suspect him of hidden motives, of affectation, or of insanity. They cast him from their bosom, revile him. ↗

— Jan Potocki

#self-interest #selfishness #selflessness #friendship

It is something like the way dame Nature gathers round a foreign body an envelope of some insensitive tissue which can protect from evil that which it would otherwise harm by contact. If this be an ordered selfishness, then we should pause before we condemn any one for the vice of egoism, for there may be deeper root for its causes than we have knowledge of. ↗

— Bram Stoker

#human-nature #selfishness #nature

Intensely selfish people are always very decided as to what they wish. They do not waste their energies in considering the good of others. ↗

— Ouida

#selfishness #energy

Better not to plant seeds of selfishness than try to eradicate them once they have grown into giant weeds. (91) ↗

— Prem Prakash

#yoga

The sad thing is most people have to check with someone before they do the things that make them happy. We're all passing through; the least we can do is be happy, and the only way to do that is by being selfish. ↗

— Gene Simmons

#before #being #being selfish #check #happy

I am less selfish. But I am more insistent on being part of the creative experience. I find I am a better mother, lover and wife when I am writing. When my daughter was small I wasn't writing as much and I didn't miss it. ↗

— Helen Slater

#being #better #better mother #creative #daughter

Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak. ↗

— Madame de Stael

#err #men #selfishness #weak #women

It is easier to do one's duty to others than to one's self. If you do your duty to others, you are considered reliable. If you do your duty to yourself, you are considered selfish. ↗

— Thomas Szasz

#duty #easier #others #reliable #self

On a selfish basis, I really enjoy sports and activity. ↗

— Alan Thicke

#basis #enjoy #i #really #selfish

Every new encounter provides a new mirror for me to view my own experiences through, and there is a level of selfishness during this period as I hunger to understand more about the girls' lives in order to understand mine. If I could figure out what had happened to them, perhaps I had a better chance of explaining it all to myself. ↗

— Rachel Lloyd

#girls #mirror #selfish #understand #experience