The 50 best phrases about selfishness

Selfish people do not take into account the needs and feelings of others. Although it is a typical characteristic of the human and natural being in some stages of life, not limiting it subtracts from another important quality: empathy.

Taking our egoism to extreme levels hurts those around us, and ends up affecting us. In addition, it is an antisocial behavior that prevents healthy coexistence. Many are the writers and intellectuals who have reflected on selfishness.

The best reflections on selfishness

To act selfishly is to act without thinking about those around us. On larger scales, selfishness as a common behavior of society has had an impact on the destruction of the environment and the abandonment of vulnerable populations, among many other evils.

This is because, once again, selfishness prevents us from thinking about others. We focus only on solving our immediate needs without analyzing the consequences or the damage that is done around it. This selfishness could destroy ourselves.

Regarding the selfishness inherent in the human being, many philosophers, writers and great thinkers of history have left great phrases to reflect on this topic. We have compiled the top 50.

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1. As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision. (Helen Keller)

Egoism and pessimism are contrary to love and do not let it grow in us.

2. Selfishness is the detestable vice that no one forgives in others, but that everyone has. (Henry Ward Beecher)

This selfish trait in men is innate, although we must control it, we must not forget that we are all susceptible to being selfish.

3. If you want to be a generous giver, beware of selfish takers. (Adam Grant)

A giving attitude can be hindered by people who are not.

4. The force of selfishness is as inevitable and as calculable as the force of gravity. (Hailliard)

Selfishness is a very obvious attitude and its effects can be calculable.

5. A selfish man is a thief. (Jose Marti)

A selfish person has no measure of his actions.

6. Love is not selfish. It's something more. (Morten Tyldum)

A true feeling of love is totally removed from selfishness.

7. People are so selfish that even those you help turn against you. (Munshi Premchand)

Selfishness permeates all our actions.

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8. Let us reject the violence and selfishness that could destroy the unity of our country. (Mwai Kibaki)

Selfish attitudes not only have to do with individual, but social attitudes.

9. Self-pity is pure selfishness. After all, it is self-centeredness in its purest form. (Rick Yancey)

An attitude of victimhood is actually an attitude of selfishness.

10. Your self-interest serves you best by not getting carried away by it. (Lao Tse)

Our interests lead us to do things selfishly.

11. We only feel public ills when they affect our private interests. (Tito Livio)

The selfish attitude of the human being makes us not see the public and collective evils.

12. The first human being without that second skin that we call selfishness is yet to be born. (José Saramago)

Selfishness is part of our nature.

13. Selfishness has very deep roots. (Arthur Schopenhauer)

Without a doubt a great reflection on the nature of selfishness.

14. We are all made of basically the same stuff: generosity and selfishness, kindness and greed. (Madeleine M. Kunin)

Human beings are equally endowed with caring qualities and selfish flaws.

15. What are leisure and indolence, if not the plastic forms of egoism? (Nicolás Avellaneda)

A great phrase about selfishness.

16. I swear, on my life and my love for her, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor do I ask that another man live for my sake. (Ayn Rand)

One way to reduce selfishness is not to wait for people to take over our lives.

17. Every war in the world has its origin in selfish people. (Fulton J. Sheen)

The origin of big problems may be related to individual problems.

18. A man is nothing more than the things he does to get what he wants. (Hal Ackerman)

Getting what we want at all costs can lead us to selfish attitudes.

19. He who wants everything to his liking in this life will have many troubles in his life. (Francisco de Quevedo)

One form of selfishness is to pretend that everything is done our way.

20. Selfishness is not self-love, but an inordinate passion for oneself. (Aristotle)

Egoism is said to be a form of self-love, but the great Aristotle reflects on this statement here.

21. Being jealous is the height of selfishness, it is self-love in default, it is the irritation of a false vanity. (Honoré de Balzac)

Jealousy is one more facet of the selfish attitude of the human being.

22. Turn a tree into firewood and it may burn for you, but it will no longer produce flowers or fruit. (Rabindranath Tagore)

A great reflection on the selfish nature of the human being individually and as a society.

24. The twin sister of religion is selfishness. (Percy Bysshe Shelley)

A phrase about selfishness that can be somewhat controversial.

25. The selfish is a person in bad taste who cares more about himself than about me. (Ambrose Bierce)

With a tone of irony, this phrase explains the nature of selfishness.

26. The interest has no temples. But he is worshiped by many devotees. (Voltaire)

Our own interests become the motive for our actions, often selfish.

27. The only acceptable selfishness is to make sure everyone is well in order to be one better. (Jacinto Benavente)

One way to turn the selfish attitude into something positive is to seek the good of others to feel that we are good.

28. The habit of living for ourselves makes us increasingly incapable of living for others. (Alejandro Vinet)

This phrase about selfishness has to do with our attitude as a society.

29. An egotist is that subject who insists on talking to you about himself when you are dying to want to talk to him about yourself. (Jean Cocteau)

Selfish people only know how to talk about themselves.

30. The egoist loves himself without rivals. (Cicero)

It is said that people with a lot of selfishness love themselves very much.

31. The great principle of selfishness is in the persuasion that all men are selfish. (Jacques De Lacretelle)

A reflection on the selfish nature of the human being.

32. The benefit of one is the detriment of someone else. (Michel E. From Montaigne)

When we benefit from something, surely someone else is hurting themselves with it.

33. In reality, there were only two people in the world whom he loved ardently: one, his ultimate flatterer on duty, and the other, himself. (Georg Ch. Lichtengerg)

Selfish people often surround themselves with people who help cultivate their selfishness.

34. The privileged will always risk their complete destruction rather than give up a small part of their privileges. (Antonio Gala)

This phrase about selfishness leaves us with a deep reflection on human nature.

35. More than ideas, men are separated by interests. (Alexis de Tocqueville)

It is not the difference of beliefs or ideas, but the defense of our interests that make us fight, and that is a selfish attitude.

36. Nothing is more to me than myself. (Max Stirner)

A selfish attitude that could be somewhat healthy.

37. We are interested in others when they are interested in us. (Publio Siro)

One form of selfishness is only caring about the people we love or who have previously shown an interest in us.

38. It was said of a very selfish man: he would set fire to our house to fry a couple of eggs. (Chamfort)

Selfish people will have no limit to satisfy their own needs.

39. Anything done in your own interest is justified. (Oscar Wilde)

A phrase about selfishness with a lot to ponder and debate.

40. One of the misfortunes of our country consists, as has been said many times, in that the individual interest ignores the collective interest. (Santiago Ramón y Cajal)

Selfishness as a society and part of a country, makes nations corrupt and unhappy places.

41. Selfish people are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either. (Erich Fromm)

In this sentence it is stated that in reality selfishness is not a form of self-love either.

42. Every man must decide whether he is going to walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. (Martin Luther King)

A great quote from the great Martin Luther King.

43. A man is not defined as selfish for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting the good of others. (Richard Whately)

Sometimes we are not selfish for thinking only of ourselves, but for not thinking of others.

44. Selfishness is blind. (Mahatma Gandhi)

Mahatma Gandhi despised all selfish attitude.

45. One of the biggest diseases in the world is selfishness. (Teresa of Calcutta)

Selfishness has made our society very sick.

46. Selfishness comes from poverty in the heart, from the belief that love is not abundant. (Don Miguel Ruiz)

Selfishness is contrary to love.

47. We cannot judge the lives of others, since each person knows their own pain. It is one thing to feel that you are on the right path and quite another to think that yours is the only path. (Paulo Coelho)

One form of selfishness is not respecting the ways and processes of other people and believing that only ours is the true one.

48. Man is a selfishness mitigated by an indolence. (Fernando Pessoa)

One of the best phrases about selfishness.

49. Good character consists in recognizing the selfishness that is inherent in each one of us and trying to balance it against the altruism that we all should aspire to. (Alan Dershowitz)

Selfishness is part of human nature, but it is up to us to minimize it and achieve balance.

50. If you want to take a long trip, travel light. Take away envy, jealousy, loneliness, selfishness and fear. (Cesare Pavese)

To live well, you have to get rid of negative feelings.