Famous Quotes & Sayings

Selfish men were...trying to make capital for themselves out of the sacred cause of civil rights

Pat Conroy

I'd be a conservative if I'd never met any. They're selfish, mean-spirited, egocentric, reactionary, and boring.

Little Richard

God would be a very selfish god if he gave all the soul to one race. ... When one sings from the heart and it reaches another heart, that's soul.

Oscar Wilde

A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses.

R. Buckminster Fuller

It seemed that the time would come evolutionarily when humans might have acquired enough knowledge of generalized principles to permit a graduation from class-two (entropically selfish) evolution into class-one (syntropically cooperative) evolution, thereafter making all the right moves for all the right reasons.

Noah Webster

...if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

Customs are generally unselfish. Habits are nearly always selfish.

Jim Broadbent

I think we all have a selfish gene which rises to the top, sometimes. But then we're also all capable of a sudden magnanimity.

Jim Broadbent

Oh, I think I've been entirely selfish with my career. I've done what I wanted to do, and not put myself out for anyone else particularly.

Jessica Capshaw

I don't know if it's ever OK for someone to be selfish. Perhaps there's a time and place to be self-centered, but I think selfish never wins the race.

Jessica Alba

I think that people who don't like animals tend to be selfish, but I'm biased.

Mike Birbiglia

I've been selfish over the years, and other people who have made it have too, but I can only speak for myself.

Julian Barnes

Poets seem to write more easily about love than prose writers. For a start, they own that flexible ‘I’…. Then again, poets seem able to turn bad love – selfish, shitty love – into good love poetry. Prose writers lack this power of admirable, dishonest transformation. We can only turn bad love into prose about bad love. So we are envious (and slightly distrustful) when poets talk to us of love.

Kerry Bishe

I think its really rare to see women on television who are brilliant, selfish, vain, fallible - and I feel like I have all those capacities in myself, so its good to see people in the media representing all of those things.

Kristen Stewart

Sometimes you have to be selfish to get what you want and move forward in life.

Oscar Levant

I've given up reading books. I find it takes my mind off myself.

Margaret Atwood

Remember,' she'd tell her staff, 'every customer wants to feel like a princess, and princesses are selfish and overbearing.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is difficult to persuade mankind that the love of virtue is the love of themselves.

Margaret Chase Smith

I speak as briefly as possible because too much harm has already been done with irresponsible words of bitterness and selfish political opportunism. I speak as simply as possible because the issue is too great to be obscured by eloquence. I speak simply and briefly in the hope that my words will be taken to heart.

Margaret Cho

That we are selfish gives us the opportunity to gain the power so that, in time, we might be selfless. To give back what we have learned. To teach what we know, and shorten the journey for those who will come after us.

Honore de Balzac

Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.

James E. Faust

Satan had two conditions [to his plan]: the first was the denial of agency, and the second, that he would have the honor. In other words, something had to be in it for him. And thus he became the father of lies and selfishness. Taking up one's cross and following the Savior means overcoming selfishness; it is a commitment to serve others. Selfishness is one of the baser human traits, which must be subdued and overcome. We torture our souls when we focus on getting rather than giving.

James E. Faust

In recent years, many seem to have spent their lives protesting. Perhaps they have felt to do this because they have felt repressed or wished to bring about change or have acted out of selfish reasons, thinking that if they tore the house down they might end up with a shingle.

You don't want to get too selfish over times. But we went out and got it done again.

Gertrude Stein

Men ... are so conservative, so selfish, so boresome, and ... they are so ugly, and ... they are gullible, anybody can convince them.

Gerard Way

People have evolved into something selfish, greedy and intolerant. People are unaccepting, because of religion, race, gender, sexual orientation... I've seen it in punk clubs, and I've seen it in the world.

Gretchen Rubin

If I give more to myself, I can ask more from myself. Self-regard isn't selfish.

Gretchen Rubin

Your unhappiness doesn't help anyone else - and in fact, as I mentioned in another answer, happy people are more altruistically inclined. So happiness is not a selfish goal.

Gordon B. Hinckley

It is selfishness which is the cause of most of our misery.

Gordon B. Hinckley

We are involved in an intense battle. It is a battle between right and wrong, between truth and error, between the design of the Almighty on the one hand and that of Lucifer on the other. For that reason, we desperately need moral men and women who stand on principle, to be involved in the political process. Otherwise, we abdicate power to those whose designs are almost entirely selfish.

Gordon B. Hinckley

It is imperative that good people, men and women of principle, be involved in the political process; otherwise we abdicate power to those whose designs are almost entirely selfish.

Gladys Taber

I resolve to be more patient, less selfish, cherish my friends, and in my small way help whoever needs help. I cannot conceivably influence the world's destiny, but I can make my own life more worthwhile. I can give some help to some people; that is not vital to all the world's problems and yet, I think if everyone did just that, we might see quite a world in our time!

Herbie Mann

Being selfish to me means that you have to look out for yourself and you don't have to sacrifice.