Selfishness Quotes

Up to a certain point the thought or sight of misery enlists our best affections; but, in certain special cases, beyond that point it does not. They err who would assert that invariably this is owing to the inherent selfishness of the human heart. It rather proceeds from a certain hopelessness of remedying excessive and organic ill. ~ Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville "I love them," said Dorothy. "They are so nice and selfish. Dogs are too good and unselfish. They make me feel uncomfortable. But cats are gloriously human." ~ Anne of the Island by Lucy Maud Montgomery "Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion." ~ Children of the Ghetto by Israel Zangwill "The liberty to live for self alone becomes in time a weary bondage." ~ The Rosary by Florence L. Barclay Others had been a little wild, which was not to be wondered at, and not very blamable; but, he had made a lamentation and uproar which it was dangerous for the people to hear, as there is always contagion in weakness and selfishness. ~ Wreck of the Golden Mary by Charles Dickens Old Mr. Rarx was not a pleasant man to look at, nor yet to talk to, or to be with, for no one could help seeing that he was a sordid and selfish character, and that he had warped further and further out of the straight with time. ~ Wreck of the Golden Mary by Charles Dickens "By love I mean the forgetfulness of self. Unions are frequent in which only the sexual instincts, or the remembrance of self, are roused---" ~ Fraternity by John Galsworthy "The scrupulous and the just, the noble, humane, and devoted natures; the unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movement--but it passes away from them. They are not the leaders of a revolution. They are its victims." ~ Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad It is to the credit of human nature that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. ~ The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne "His own enjoyment, or his own ease, was, in every particular, his ruling principle." ~ Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen