Selflessness Quotes

Leading well is not about enriching yourself - it's about empowering others

It's that wonderful old-fashioned idea that others come first and you come second. This was the whole ethic by which I was brought up. Others matter more than you do, so 'don't fuss, dear; get on with it.'

The most compassionate form of giving is done with no thought or expectation of reward, and grounded in genuine concern for others.

The proper aim of giving is to put the recipient in a state where he no longer needs our gifts...Thus a heavy task is laid upon Gift-love. It must work toward its own abdication. We must aim at making ourselves superfluous. The hour when we can say 'They need me no longer' should be our reward. But the instinct, simply in its own nature, has no power to fulfill this law.

People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves. It is what I call the depth of generosity.

He left her. She was dissatisfied with him. He had preferred to incur her anger rather than cause her pain. He had kept all the pain for himself.

Love never claims, it ever gives.

For this I bless you most. You give much and know not that you give at all.

The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish achievements, but rather with the things we do for others

Today I'm out wandering, turning my skull into a cup for others to drink wine from. In this town somewhere there sits a calm, intelligent man, who doesn't know what he's about to do!

If you shift your focus from yourself to others, extend your concern to others, and cultivate the thought of caring for the well being of others, then this will have the immediate effect of opening up your life and helping you to reach out.

True suffering does not know itself and never calculates.

Voluntary service of others demands the best of which one is capable, and must take precedence over service of self.

When you focus on serving, there is no fear in you.

Is there any real purpose in being alive if all we are going to do is get up every day and live only for ourselves? Live your life to help others. Give & live selflessly.

Love risks everything and asks for nothing.

What good being object of charity? Give away, ne'er turn to ask in return, Should there be the wealth treasured in thy heart.

The regular path of virtue is to be pursued without any bend, and from no view to emolument.

Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a common end, and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their own.

The bottom line in managing your emotions is that you should put others – not yourself – first in how you handle and process them. Whether you delay or display your emotions should not be for your own gratification. You should ask yourself, What does the team need? Not, What will make me feel better?

A mother would never by choice sleep in a wet bed but she would gladly do so in order to spare the dry bed for her child.

Find yourself by losing yourself for others.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

heaven is eternal, earth everlasting. they endure this way because they do not live for themselves. in the same way, the wise person puts himself last, and thereby finds himself first, holds himself outside, and thereby remains at the center, abandons himself, and is thereby fulfilled.

Each and every one of you should consider himself to be a trustee for the welfare of the rest of his fellow labourers and not be self-seeking.

I felt like when we came back from the All-Star break we needed everybody to feel like they were part of the team, ... I'm just trying to do whatever the team needs at any given time.

The only thing that saves the world is the little handful of disinterested men that are in it.

No longer mourn for me when I am dead than you shall hear the surly sullen bell give warning to the world that I am fled from this vile world with vilest worms to dwell: nay, if you read this line, remember not the hand that writ it, for I love you so, that I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot, if thinking on me then should make you woe. O! if, I say, you look upon this verse when I perhaps compounded am with clay, do not so much as my poor name rehearse; but let your love even with my life decay; lest the wise world should look into your moan, and mock you with me after I am gone.

Detachment is not indifference. it is the prerequisite for effective involvement. Often what we think is best for others is distorted by our attachments to our opinions. We want others to be happy in the way we think they should be happy. It is only when we want nothing for ourselves that we are able to see clearly into others needs and understand how to serve them.

The fourth (of the four cardinal virtues) is supportiveness: this manifests as service to others without expectation of reward. (Paraphrased: Such service is not a mere conforming to some external rule of behavior, but instead a manifestation of your original nature).

Great calm, generous detachment, selfless love, disinterested effort: these are what make for success in life. If you can find peace in yourself and can spread comfort around you, you will be happier than an empress.

I have no private interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by any of them.

Necessity does everything well. In our condition of universal dependence, it seems heroic to let the petitioner be the judge of his necessity, and to give all that is asked, though at great inconvenience.

We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others.

The greatest joy comes from giving and serving, so replace your habit of focusing exclusively on yourself and what's in it for you. When you make the shift to supporting others in your life, without expecting anything in return, you'll think less about what you want and find comfort and joy in the act of giving and serving.

I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. I would hope to act with compassion without thinking of personal gain.

It is impossible to be both selfish and happy.

I'm more than comfortable just sitting back and scoring 21, 22 points or whatever and getting 10, 11 assists whatever the case might be. More than comfortable with that. It's just a matter of the pieces that you have around you and what you can do to elevate everybody else.

Teamwork is what the Green Bay Packers were all about. They didn't do it for individual glory. They did it because they loved one another.

Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous.Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful.

When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.

The leader is a teacher who succeeds without taking credit. And, because credit is not taken, credit is received.

Behind my work was ambition, behind my love was personality, behind my purity was fear, behind my guidance the thirst for power. Now they are vanishing and I drift. I come, Mother, I come, in Thy warm bosom, floating wheresoever Thou takest me, in the voiceless, in the strange, in the wonderland, I come - a spectator, no more an actor.

Give me few men and women who are pure and selfless and I shall shake the world.

The sage has no concern for himself, but makes the concerns of others his own.

Life wants you to serve something more than yourself. When you serve something more than yourself, you are served. It's the most ironic thing in the world.

Anonymously perform acts of kindness, expecting nothing in return-not even a thank you.

The object of love is to serve, not to win

Learning to live for others isn't something that just comes naturally to anybody. You have to train yourself to do it.

I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.

I have never been interested in personal gain or profit. This business and this studio have been my entire life.

The devotion of such titans of spirit as Lenin to an Ideal must bear fruit. The nobility of his selflessness will be an example through centuries to come, and his Ideal will reach perfection.

Perhaps the basic thing which contributes to charm is the ability to forget oneself and be engrossed in other people.

While personal maturity may mean being able to see beyond yourself, leadership maturity means considering others before yourself.

Give, expecting nothing there of.

love means to see the one you love happy

I give you my hand, I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself?

The power is with the silent ones, who only live and love and then withdraw their personality. They never say “me” and “mine”; they are only blessed in being instruments

Elinor was to be the comforter of others in her own distresses, no less than in theirs; and all the comfort that could be given by assurances of her own composure of mind, and a very earnest vindication of Edward from every charge but of imprudence, was readily offered.

The highest benevolence acts without purpose.