"Self-interest, or rather self-love, or egoism, has..." - Quote by Thomas Jefferson
Self-interest, or rather self-love, or egoism, has been more plausibly substituted as the basis of morality.
More by Thomas Jefferson
“ours are the only farmers who can read Homer”
“The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society. And indeed it would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of the society. May we not even say that that form of government is the best which provides the most - for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the offices of government?”
“Trial by jury is part of the bright constellation which leads to peace, liberty and safety.”
More on Morality
“If a shameless woman expects to be defiled and then dies of her fierce love because you do not consent, will chastity also be homicide?”
“Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality.”
“Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all.”
More on Self Interest
“Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest.”
“Men are less hesitant about harming someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared because love is held together by a chain of obligation which, since men are wretched creatures, is broken on every occasion in which their own interests are concerned; but fear is sustained by dread of punishment which will never abandon you.”
“In the bureaucracy, the identity of state interest and particular private aim is established in such a way that the state interest becomes a particular private aim over against other private aims.”