Self-Righteousness Quotes

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.

Policies are judged by their consequences but crusades are judged by how good they make the crusaders feel.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

We must be careful to avoid spiritual elitism. Everything we are and anything we possess as believers in Christ is a gift of grace. Pure hearts before God must be cleansed from any hint of spiritual pride.

People are never more sincere than when they assume their own moral superiority.

The man who acts the least, upbraids the most.

A man is never so proud as when striking an attitude of humility.

The kind of man who always thinks that he is right, that his opinions, his pronouncements, are the final word, when once exposed shows nothing there. But a wise man has much to learn without a loss of dignity.

No people do as much harm as those who go about doing good.

The arrogance that accompanies merit offends us even more than the arrogance of people who are lacking in merit: since merit itself offends us.

People who pride themselves on their "complexity" and deride others for being "simplistic" should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth.

Self-righteousness in retrospect is easy--also cheap.

For we did makeup. But we didn't forgive each other. And we didn't take steps. And it got to be too late and we saw that each of us had invested too much in being in the right and we walked away and it was a relief.

There was nothing more dangerous than people convinced of their own good intentions.

Self-interest speaks all sorts of tongues and plays all sorts of characters, even that of disinterestedness

'Bloody do-gooders' is my expression for people who are nicer than me, who are better than me.

He that accuses all mankind of corruption ought to remember that he is sure to convict only one.

To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.

A cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to Hell than a prostitute.

The gospel is good news to those who know they don't measure up. It's offensive to those who think they do.

As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.

We, as Americans, at least - I mean, I love my country - but we're so self-righteous sometimes, in terms of, like, our nationality, our country. But we're people from somewhere else; the true 'Americans' are the original peoples. It's funny, but we're a very territorial species.

I am too pure for you or anyone.

The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so