Selfishness does not mean only to do things for one's self. One may do things, affecting others, for his own pleasure and benefit. This is not immoral, but the highest of morality.
The meaning ascribed in popular usage to the word 'selfishness' is not merely wrong: it represents a devastating intellectual 'package-deal,' which is responsible, more than any other single factor, for the arrested moral development of mankind.
If we see pride among people who have no idea about Dharma, it is understandable. However, if afflictive emotions and haughtiness are present among Dharma practitioners, it is great disgrace to practice
Selfish people, with no heart to speak of, have the best time of it.
Markets also have a very bad psychological effect. They drive people to a conception of themselves and society in which you're only after your own good, not the good of others and that's extremely harmful.
Children are completely egoistic; they feel their needs intensely and strive ruthlessly to satisfy them.
Anybody who's ever mattered, anybody who's ever been happy, anybody who's ever given any gift into the world has been a divinely selfish soul, living for his own best interest. No exceptions.
But the bottom line is that, as humans, we are by nature selfish creatures. The only way we care about anything, really, is by making it about us.
Vanity, not love, has been my folly.
men are so conceited they’ll believe anything that flatters them
Human beings are struggling, and so they are egoists. But it's wrong to say that they are wholy cruel - it's a deformed view.
Selfishness has never been admired.
Remember the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interests or profit. They seek service for themselves
Selfishness keeps man blind through life.
Human altruism which is not egoism, is sterile.
Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
No man that has ever lived has done a thing to please God--primarily. It was done to please himself, then God next.
We always think of our own profit, but not in connection to others.
The trouble is, most people are not so generous. Everybody wants love for themselves. I hear this all the time from the women I work with. I hear them say, "I want, I want." I never hear them saying what they want to give.
No man is more cheated than the selfish man.
The grand obstacle to the salvation of the scribes and Pharisees was their pride, vanity and self-love. They lived on each other's praise. If they had acknowledged Christ as the only good teacher, they must have given up the good opinion of the multitude; and they chose rather to lose their souls than to forfeit their reputation among men!
