Self Interest Quotes

The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say.

There is no self-interest completely unrelated to others' interests. Due to the fundamental interconnectedness which lies at the heart of reality, your interest is also my interest. From this it becomes clear that "my" interest and "your" interest are intimately connected. In a deep sense, they converge.

Friendship is a traffic wherein self-love always proposes to be the gainer.

Each pursues his private interest and only his private interest; and thereby serves the private interests of all, the general interest, without willing it or knowing it. The real point is not that each individual's pursuit of his private interest promotes the totality of private interests, the general interest. One could just as well deduce from this abstract phrase that each individual reciprocally blocks the assertion of the others' interests, so that, instead of a general affirmation, this war of all against all produces a general negation.

It is oftener by the estimation of our own feelings that we exaggerate the good qualities of others than by their merit, and when we praise them we wish to attract their praise.

What makes vanity so insufferable to us, is that it hurts our own.

When we seek reconciliation with our enemies, it is commonly out of a desire to better our own condition, a being harassed and tired out with a state of war, and a fear of some ill accident which we are willing to prevent.

We know that there are chiselers. At the bottom of every case of criticism and obstruction we have found some selfish interest, some private axe to grind.

Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment.

I always had an aversion to your apostles of freedom; each but sought for himself freedom to do what he liked.

When people talk to us about others they are usually dull. When they talk to us about themselves they are nearly always interesting.

The more we help others, the more we help ourselves

That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.

Avarice often produces opposite results: there are an infinite number of persons who sacrifice their property to doubtful and distant expectations; others mistake great future advantages for small present interests.

When . . . in the course of all these thousands of years has man ever acted in accordance with his own interests?

It is ever true that he who does nothing for others, does nothing for himself." ~ Goethe

Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.

Those who are bent on revolutionizing society may be divided into those who seek something for themselves thereby and those who seek something for their children and grandchildren.

The last end of every maker, as such, is himself, for what we make we use for our own sake; and if at any time a man make a thing for the sake of something else, it is referred to his own good, whether his use, his pleasure, or his virtue.

Who has not for the sake of his reputation sacrificed himself?

The reason so many problems do not get solved in Washington is that solving those problems is not the No. 1 priority: Re-election is.

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights. Men are moved by only two mechanisms: fear and self-interest. Victory belongs to the most persevering.

One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best.

It is important that when pursing our own self-interest we should be 'wise selfish' and not 'foolish selfish'. Being foolish selfish means pursuing our own interests in a narrow, shortsighted way. Being wise selfish means taking a broader view and recognizing that our own long-term individual interest lies in the welfare of everyone. Being wise selfish means being compassionate.

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.

If your imagination leads you to understand how quickly people grant your requests when those requests appeal to their self- interest, you can have practically anything you go after.

If you focus only on yourself and neglect others, you will lose; but you will gain if you value others as much as you cherish yourself.

Fortitude: That quality of mind which does not care what happens so long as it does not happen to us.

Those who have the most cunning affect all their lives to condemn cunning; that they may make use of it on some great occasion, and to some great end.

Every guy looks in his pocket and then votes.

Pity aims just as little at the pleasure of others as malice at the pain of others Per-Se.

If we lacked curiosity, we should do less for the good of our neighbor. But, under the name of duty or pity, curiosity steals into the home of the unhappy and the needy. Perhaps even in the famous mother-love there is a good deal of curiosity.

Whoever has really sacrificed anything, knows that he wanted and got something in return.

Pity is a sense of our own misfortunes in those of another man; it is a sort of foresight of the disasters which may befall ourselves. We assist others,, in order that they may assist us on like occasions; so that the services we offer to the unfortunate are in reality so many anticipated kindnesses to ourselves.

A clever man should handle his interests so that each will fall in suitable order of their value.

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.

Interest which blinds some People, enlightens others.

Gratitude is a lively sense of benefits to come.

Virtues lose themselves in self-interest, as rivers in the sea.

Politeness is a desire to be treated politely, and to be esteemed polite oneself.

It seems that for some people the idea of compassion entails a complete disregard for or even a sacrifice of their own interests. This is not the case. In fact, you first of all have to have a wish to be happy yourself - if you don't love yourself like that, how can you love others?

The miller believes that all the wheat grows so that his mill keeps running.

Jealousy is not so much the love of another as the love of ourselves.

In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.

It is awful hard to get people interested in corruption unless they can get some of it.

When he has the power to see things detached from self-interest and from the insistent claims of the lust of the senses, then alone can he have the true vision of the beauty that is everywhere.

What we take for virtue is often nothing but an assemblage of different actions, and of different interests, that fortune or our industry knows how to arrange.

Every man looks out for himself, and he has the happiest life who manages to hoodwink himself best of all.

There is something to be said for jealousy, because it only designs the preservation of some good which we either have or think wehave a right to. But envy is a raging madness that cannot bear the wealth or fortune of others.

People have a vested interest in promoting one set of polices rather than finding out what the truth is.

Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit; the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person.

The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than others are saying.

When we exaggerate our friends' tenderness towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own virtue.

Self-interest speaks all manner of tongues and plays all manner of parts, even that of disinterestedness.

The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

But was there ever dog that praised his fleas?

The moral sense is always supported by the permanent interest of the parties. Else, I know not how, in our world, any good would ever get done.

In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors.

Usually we praise only to be praised.

We are not fond of praising, and never praise any one except from interested motives. Praise is a clever, concealed, and delicate flattery, which gratifies in different ways the giver and the receiver. The one takes it as a recompense of his merit, and the other bestows it to display his equity and discernment.