Unselfishness Quotes

“Though my work may be menial, though my contribution may be small, I can perform it with dignity and offer it with unselfishness. My talents may not be great, but I can use them to bless the lives of others.... The goodness of the world in which we live is the accumulated goodness of many small and seemingly inconsequential acts.”
― Gordon B. Hinckley

“If you asked twenty good men to-day what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love - You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance.

The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

“Some of our friends are our friends only because we used to be friends.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism

“In some rare cases, a friendship between two people benefits both of them, and what’s more, in some rarer cases, it benefits both of them equally.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism

“It's like...I can throw away my whole life trying to help somebody else, but i can only do something for me if I know it doesn't matter.”
― Dan Wells, Ruins

“We are, or rather our natural desire to evade pain and to attain pleasure is, the primary reason we do or say every single thing we do or say.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism

“*Prostitution* is a euphemism for rape incidents that the victim and the economy profits from.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism

“Man is an extremely complex creature: he usually acts in an unselfish manner for selfish reasons.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“In many cases, it was the woman’s stomach—not her heart—that fell for her man.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism

“Both men and women who have children as a rule regulate their lives largely with reference to them, and children cause perfectly ordinary men and women to act unselfishly in certain ways, of which perhaps life insurance is the most definite and measurable.”
― Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals

“No single bad person regards themselves as a bad person.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism

“Females and boys are the only creatures that propose others for friendship. As for the rest of us, friendship sort of just happens.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism

“To label someone as selfless is symptomatic of having bought the preposterous claim that a human being can have great concern for other human beings and little concern for themselves, or that, when taken to extremes, a human being can have great concern for other human beings and absolutely no concern for themselves.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism

“It is humanly impossible to be selfless. As a matter of fact, human beings are inherently selfish.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism

“The pleasure or the benefit that the object of our deed derives from it is every now and then greater or even more important than the one we derive from the deed.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism

“In some cases, it is the woman’s stomach—not her heart—that has left her man for another.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Selfish Genie: A Satirical Essay on Altruism

“Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Putting someone before yourself is possible only if that is done literally.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Then tell me what better I can do,” said Gwendolen, insistently.

“Many things. Look on other lives besides your own. See what their troubles are, and how they are borne. Try to care about something in this vast world besides the gratification of small selfish desires. Try to care for what is best in thought and action—something that is good apart from the accidents of your own lot.”

For an instant or two Gwendolen was mute. Then, again moving her brow from the glass, she said,

“You mean that I am selfish and ignorant.”

He met her fixed look in silence before he answered firmly—“You will not go on being selfish and ignorant!”

She did not turn away her glance or let her eyelids fall, but a change came over her face—that subtle change in nerve and muscle which will sometimes give a childlike expression even to the elderly: it is the subsidence of self-assertion.”
― George Eliot, Daniel Deronda

“Love is its own reward.”
― Donna Goddard, Circles of Separation

“The price of a successful relationship is devotion. Devotion is, essentially, commitment to something we value. We are devoted to the wellbeing of another person and the wellbeing of the relationship. We honour the value of the other person and we honour the worth of the relationship.”
― Donna Goddard, Love's Longing

“Nothing but a Thou can be loved and a Thou can exist only for an I. A society in which no one was conscious of himself as a person over against other persons, where none could say 'I love you', would, indeed, be free from selfishness, but not through love. It would be 'unselfish' as a bucket of water is unselfish.”
― C. S. Lewis

“If we want well-being for all people, then we must share what we have with our neighbors, and they must share with their neighbors, and every recipient of kindness and charity must continue to share until all—worldwide—are partakers and benefactors of true generosity. Human well-being does not exist in consort with selfishness.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Being Bold: Quotes, Poetry, & Motivations for Every Day of the Year

“He that does good to another does good mainly, or even only, for himself.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Not everyone who has helped or is helping you wanted or wants to help you.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“You know I wouldn’t want to meddle with your book,” he said. “You’ll know what’s best to put in it. But there's one last thing I want to say to the people of the world. If you would, put it at the very back of your book, so people will remember it most.”
“I’ll be happy to do whatever you ask,” I said.
“I know that, Alden, I know that,” Santa said. “You’re one of the fine people of the earth.” He didn't see my blush at his compliment; he was looking out at the snowy horizon.
“Here’s what I want to say. At Christmastime, people suddenly turn loving and unselfish. They start to share with others, and they notice how happy it makes them. They give and give and don’t really expect anything in return.
“Even nations get the Christmas spirit. More than once I’ve taken off on Christmas Eve a little worried about the guns and missiles I was sure to encounter—only to find that the warring countries had declared a Christmas truce.”
He paused again, and we stopped walking. Santa grasped my arm and spoke more earnestly. “Tell the people that Christmas is the best time of the year—oh, they know that. But why can’t we make the whole year like that? Why can’t we be loving and sharing all year ‘round—even when others aren’t loving and sharing back?
“Alden, you know me. I’m not a preachy guy. I’ve said my piece. But tell the people that, please. Please?” He stared at me for a moment, his eyes not wavering, and then he gave me a great big bear hug. “And tell all my kids they’re the greatest thing on Earth,” he whispered in my ear.”
― Alden Perkes, The Santa Claus Book

“Humanity is at its finest when we set aside selfishness and the many things that divide us and determine to work together to improve our planet unconditionally for the benefit of others.”
― Stewart Stafford

“A candle as it diminishes explains,
Gathering more and more is not the way.
Burn, become light and heat and help. Melt.”
― Rumi, The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems – Coleman Barks's Sublime Renderings of the 13th-Century Sufi Mystic's Insights into Divine Love and the Human Heart

“The opposite of war is not peace, it's unselfishness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Giants in Jeans: 100 Sonnets of United Earth

“When unselfish we rise, when selfish we fall.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Gentalist: There's No Social Work, Only Family Work