“
I have two choices in life: I either try to do the right thing and get accused of being selfish, or I just do what is right for me and get called selfish anyway. This time, it's all about me.
”
”
Dawn O'Porter (Paper Aeroplanes (Paper Aeroplanes, #1))
“
Whether they’re family or friends, manipulators are difficult to escape from. Give in to their demands and they’ll be happy enough, but if you develop a spine and start saying no, it will inevitably bring a fresh round of head games and emotional blackmail. You’ll notice that breaking free from someone else’s dominance will often result in them accusing you of being selfish. Yes, you’re selfish, because you’ve stopped doing what they want you to do for them. Wow. Can these people hear themselves?!
”
”
Rosie Blythe (The Princess Guide to Life)
“
Narcissistic parents don’t really recognize their children as people separate from them. Instead, they see their children as little extensions of themselves. The needs of the child are defined by the needs of the parent, and the child who tries to express his needs is often accused of being selfish or inconsiderate.
”
”
Jonice Webb (Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect)
“
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God. It was never between you and them anyway.
”
”
Mother Teresa
“
And when someone accuses you of being selfish, just remember that he’s upset only because you aren’t doing what he selfishly wants you to do.
”
”
Harry Browne (How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty)
“
...capitalism satisfied the Christian demand for an institution that channels selfish human desire toward the betterment of society. Some critics accuse capitalism of being a selfish system, but the selfishness is not in capitalism - it is in human nature.
”
”
Dinesh D'Souza (What's So Great About Christianity)
“
Ah, selfish. There’s that word again.” Sherry smirked. “It’s been hurled at me many a time, because being a mother and wife is all about selflessness, see?” She imitated a perky, syrupy-sweet voice. “Giving up every molecule of your soul. If you want anything for yourself, you’re accused of being selfish. Marriage and especially motherhood mean being condemned to play second fiddle your entire life.
”
”
Andrea Lochen (The Repeat Year)
“
You selfish bitch!"
She had known for a long time that putting her needs above those of Adam's wife and children was indeed selfish. She had no real answer to the accusation thrown at her.
"I'm sorry" she said, with her head in her hands.
"you're sorry?" came her adversary's disbelieving reply.
"I am. I'm sorry he married you when he was in love with me. I'm sorry I couldn't have loved someone else. I'm sorry your marriage is a joke and I'm sorry that I'm alone. I'm sorry for a lot of things - for you, for your kids, for me and for him. I spend most of my time being sorry."
For a moment there was silence at the end of the line.
"all you had to do was stay away"
"if only I could have." tears escaped and raced down her cheeks.
"I hate you!
”
”
Anna McPartlin (Apart from the Crowd)
“
grief. We do and say strange things—sometimes bizarre things—when we are swallowed up in grief. No one should be hard on us when we say thoughtless and selfish things when we are in grief. Both Mary and Martha accused Jesus of being the cause of their brother’s death by not responding immediately to their request: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21, 32). Jesus did not rebuke either of them. Instead, He wept with them (see John 11:35). So with all of us. He knows our frame; He remembers we are dust.
”
”
R.T. Kendall (These Are the Days of Elijah: How God Uses Ordinary People to Do Extraordinary Things)
“
All too often, those of us who choose to remain childless are accused of being somehow unwomanly or unnatural or selfish, but history teaches us that there have always been women who went through life without having babies.
”
”
Elizabeth Gilbert (Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage)
“
So yes,” Sean gave me a pointed look, “I approve of it wholeheartedly. In fact, seduce her again.”
I coughed, choking on nothing, and sputtered, “What? What did you say?”
“I said seduce her. And do it now. She has more unresolved feelings for you than Jennifer has for Brad.” He paused, then added, “And do a good job. Do a great job.”
I stared at him for several seconds, dumbfounded. “Of course I’ll do a great job.”
Sean pointed at me accusingly. “I’m serious. Look up some moves or watch some videos, do whatever it takes to make sure she enjoys herself.”
Now I was offended. “Fuck you, Sean. Of course she’ll enjoy herself. She’ll like it so much she’ll beg for-”
“Hey.” My teammate narrowed his eyes, slicing his hand through the air. “I don’t need or want to know the specifics. I’m just saying, take good care of her. Take excellent care of her. Give her everything she needs. And don’t be selfish.”
“I won’t be.” I shook my head with the denial, staring at Sean.
Staring at him because . . .
Did he just tell me to seduce his cousin?
”
”
L.H. Cosway (The Cad and the Co-Ed (Rugby, #3))
“
I'm ashamed to reveal that, even as a teanager, I was guilty of participanting in the mummy wars and jusging another woman for her mothering preferences. It seems that the stay-at-home mothers are still being accused of being anti-feminist and poor role models to their daughters, whereas working mothers have been accused of everything from child abuse to being selfish feminists and inflating house prices. Women are pinched against other women, and no matter where you stand in this minefield, you can't help but notice that men seem to escape the guilt and the blame.
”
”
Kasey Edwards (30 Something and Over It: What Happens When You Wake Up And Don't Want to Go To Work Ever Again)
“
The accusations of being selfish, narcissistic, or self-centered cause adult children of narcissists to fear setting boundaries with others. Since narcissistic parents condition their children to associate any form of healthy boundary-setting with punishment and projection, their children grow up believing that standing up for themselves is an inherently selfish act.
”
”
Shahida Arabi (Healing the Adult Children of Narcissists: Essays on The Invisible War Zone and Exercises for Recovery)
“
My point is you heroes never change. You accuse us gods of being vain. You should take a look at yourselves. You take what you want, you use whoever you have to, and then you betray everyone around you. So excuse me if I have no love for heroes. They are a selfish, ungrateful lot. Ask Adriane. Or Medea. For that matter, ask Zoë Nightshade.
”
”
Rick Riordan (Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series)
“
In certain young people today…I notice what I find increasingly troubling: a cold-blooded grasping, a hunger to take and take and take, but never give; a massive sense of entitlement; an inability to show gratitude; an ease with dishonesty and pretension and selfishness that is couched in the language of self-care; an expectation always to be helped and rewarded no matter whether deserving or not; language that is slick and sleek but with little emotional intelligence; an astonishing level of self-absorption; an unrealistic expectation of puritanism from others; an over-inflated sense of ability, or of talent where there is any at all; an inability to apologize, truly and fully, without justifications; a passionate performance of virtue that is well mexecuted in the public space of Twitter but not in the intimate space of friendship. I find it obscene.
People who ask you to ‘educate’ yourself while not having actually read any books themselves, while not being able to intelligently defend their own ideological positions, because by ‘educate,’ they actually mean ‘parrot what I say, flatten all nuance, wish away complexity.’
People who wield the words ‘violence’ and ‘weaponize’ like tarnished pitchforks. People who depend on obfuscation, who have no compassion for anybody genuinely curious or confused. Ask them a question and you are told that the answer is to repeat a mantra. Ask again for clarity and be accused of violence.
And so we have a generation of young people on social media so terrified of having the wrong opinions that they have robbed themselves of the opportunity to think and to learn and to grow.
”
”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“
you can’t fight a tremendous, emotion filled drive with cold mathematics. This man Hilder has invented a name, ‘Wasters.’ Slowly he has built this name up into a gigantic conspiracy; a gang of brutal, profit-seeking wretches raping Earth for their own immediate benefit. “He has accused the government of being riddled with them, the Assembly of being dominated by them, the press of being owned by them. None of this, unfortunately, seems ridiculous to the average man. He knows all too well what selfish men can do to Earth’s resources. He knows what happened to Earth’s oil during the Time of Troubles, for instance, and the way topsoil was ruined. “When a fanner experiences a drought, he doesn’t care that the amount of water lost in space flight isn’t a droplet in a fog as far as Earth’s overall water supply is concerned. Hilder has given him something to blame and that’s the strongest possible consolation for disaster. He isn’t going to give that up for a diet of figures.
”
”
Isaac Asimov (Robot Dreams (Robot, #0.4))
“
A healthy person has to learn again to be “selfish.” We have to learn to be honestly selfish, that is, we have to honestly face our needs and our feelings and face what we really want from others in our relationships. The more we face our simple wants, the more we can be straightforward in our expression to the people closest to us and to ourselves. We have to give up parental, rejecting, critical, evaluative attitudes toward our simple wishes and feelings. We have to feel what we want and stop accusing ourselves of being babyish when we want things.
When we pursue our goals in an honest and direct manner, without deception, we actually are more moral and tend to have respect and empathy for other people. There is a sense of value for both ourselves and others. Following one’s own motives and inclinations, within acceptable limits (with the exception of violations of the other’s boundaries), does not lead to chaos or immoral behavior. On the other hand, the hypocritical attitudes and dishonesty inherent in turning away from our needs often leads us to be more destructive or hostile to friends and loved ones.
”
”
Robert W. Firestone (Fear of Intimacy)
“
My faults according to the calculation, are heavy indeed! But perhaps these offences might have been overlooked, had your pride not been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design. These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I with greater policy concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination; by reason, by reflection, by everything. But disguise of every sort is my abhorrence. Nor am I ashamed of the feelings I related. They were natural and just. Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?"
"You are mistaken, Mr Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way than as it spared me the concern I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentle-man-like manner. You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any way possible that would have attempted me to accept it. From the very beginning, from the very first moment I must almost say, of my acquaintance with you, your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish distain for the feelings of others, which such as to form that ground-work of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt you were the last man on earth whom I could ever marry.
”
”
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
“
My grandmother accused me of hurting my mother. Other relatives accused me of being an ungrateful child. Mom said I was mean and cruel and had hurt her deeply. Still impressionable and my spirits tottering under the load of the pain from the past, I accepted the notion that I was that selfish and ungrateful daughter, careless of my mother’s feelings.
”
”
Nancy Richards (Mother, I Don't Forgive You: A Necessary Alternative For Healing)
“
Being selfish means taking into account yourself first, or asking others to live the way you think it's better? An interesting topic of debate; don't lose sight of that in theory we always get better than in practice!
" perhaps you have been accused of being selfish? So what? Should you feel guilty by listening to your inner space? Certainly not! By the way, what makes the other one to blame you? This has no connection with the context. It's only your deep freedom to be embarrassed.
It's your legitimate right to live your life as you hear it. What is selfish is to expect others to live their lives according to your wishes. Never feel obliged to spend your time with anyone or accept an application that does not resonate at the deepest of your inner.
This is the most beautiful service you give to the other andto yourself.
”
”
Nassrine Reza
“
Effectively communicate feelings and needs: Visiting the sister-in-law Because Tom’s job is so hectic, Rebecca barely gets to see him during the week, and she often feels very alone. On Saturdays, she usually visits her sister, who lives close by. Tom doesn’t typically join her for these visits; he likes to stay home and veg out on the couch. Generally, this is fine with her, but this Saturday, after a particularly long week at work, when Tom was even more absent than usual, she becomes very insistent that he come along. Tom, exhausted from his work week, is adamant about not wanting to go. Rebecca won’t take no for an answer and pushes the issue. He reacts by clamming up even more. Finally she tells him he’s being selfish, he ends up in front of the TV not talking, and she ends up going alone. Rebecca acts in a way that is very typical of people with an anxious attachment style. Because her husband’s being at work more than usual during the week has activated her attachment system, she feels a need to reconnect. What she needs most is to feel that Tom is available to her—that he cares and wants to be with her. However, instead of saying this directly and explaining what is bothering her, she uses protest behavior—accusing him of being selfish and insisting that he come to her sister’s. Tom is bewildered that Rebecca is suddenly behaving so irrationally—after all, they have an understanding that he doesn’t have to go to her sister’s. How different Tom’s reaction might be if Rebecca simply said, “I know you hate going to my sister’s, but it would mean the world to me if you could come this one time. I’ve hardly seen you all week and I don’t want to miss out on any more time together.” Effectively expressing your emotional needs is even better than the other person magically reading your mind. It means that you’re an active agent who can be heard, and it opens the door for a much richer emotional dialogue. Even if Tom still chose not to join Rebecca, if he understood how she felt, he could find another way to reassure her: “If you really want me to go, I will. But I also want to relax. How about we go out tonight—just the two of us? Would that make you feel better? You don’t really want me at your sister’s anyway, do you? I will get in the way of the two of you catching up.
”
”
Amir Levine (Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love)
“
They drained you and they didn’t pour anything back,” I whisper. “And you still found more to give. Of course it hurts when they accuse you of being selfish.
”
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Nia Arthurs (Grumpy Romance (Billionaire Dads #1))
“
Scientists, unlike politicians, can take pleasure in being wrong. A politician who changes his mind is accused of ‘flip-flopping’.
”
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Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene)
“
Examination of Conscience Come, Lord Jesus! For the times when I forget that I need a Savior, and arrogantly conceive of myself as sufficient to myself, For the times when I do not believe Jesus and instead give in to the lie of perceiving God the Father as being indifferent or hostile to my well-being, For the times when I trust my self-pitying accusations more than the Father’s love, For the times when I desecrate the presence of Christ by making my own opinions, my own criteria, or my own likes and dislikes the measure for measuring the circumstances of life and other people, For the times when I have shunned the presence of Christ, whether it be his sacramental presence or his presence through the people he puts in my life, For the times when I have blasphemed the presence of Christ through using other human beings as things that I can manipulate or use for my own selfish ends, For the times when I have disregarded the will of Christ through abuse of those things he has given to me for the building up of his kingdom, For the times when I justify my sinfulness and thus treat God’s mercy with disdain,
”
”
Magnificat (2015 Magnificat Advent Companion)
“
Aorist rods were devices used in a now happily abandoned form of energy production. When the hunt for new sources of energy had at one point got particularly frantic, one bright young chap suddenly spotted that one place which had never used up all its available energy was – the past. And with the sudden rush of blood to the head that such insights tend to induce, he invented a way of mining it that very same night, and within a year huge tracts of the past were being drained of all their energy and simply wasting away. Those who claimed that the past should be left unspoilt were accused of indulging in an extremely expensive form of sentimentality. The past provided a very cheap, plentiful, and clean source of energy, there could always be a few Natural Past Reserves set up if anyone wanted to pay for their upkeep, and as for the claim that draining the past impoverished the present, well, maybe it did, slightly, but the effects were immeasurable and you really had to keep a sense of proportion. It was only when it was realised that the present really was being impoverished, and that the reason for it was that those selfish plundering wastrel bastards up in the future were doing exactly the same thing, that everyone realised that every single aorist rod, and the terrible secret of how they were made, would have to be utterly and forever destroyed.
”
”
Ann VanderMeer (The Time Traveler's Almanac)
“
I’d let Annwyn burn, down to the last soul, if it meant Veyka’s life. I was as selfish as I’d ever accused her of being. I was in love with her. If she saw the realization playing across my face, or if she passed it off as exhaustion, I didn’t know. But Veyka’s eyes shifted away from me, and I was damned thankful for it. The weight of everything was suddenly suffocating, the world pressing in on me from every angle.
”
”
Emberly Ash
“
Guilt-tripping: A true form of emotional manipulation, a manipulator will exploit the integrity and conscientiousness of the victim by accusing them of being too selfish, too irresponsible, or not caring enough. Shaming: Although shaming can bring about social change when large corporations or governments advance abusive or discriminatory policies, manipulators may attempt to intimidate their victims by using sharp criticism, sarcastic comments, or insults to make them feel bad.
”
”
Christopher Kingler (Masters of Emotional Blackmail: Disarm the Hidden Techniques of the Blackmailer, Set Boundaries and Free Yourself from Feelings of Fear, Obligation, Guilt and Anxiety)
“
are all exceptional cases. We all want to appeal against something! Each of us insists on being innocent at all cost, even if he has to accuse the whole human race and heaven itself. You won’t delight a man by complimenting him on the efforts by which he has become intelligent or generous. On the other hand, he will beam if you admire his natural generosity. Inversely, if you tell a criminal that his crime is not due to his nature or his character but to unfortunate circumstances, he will be extravagantly grateful to you. During the counsel’s speech, this is the moment he will choose to weep. Yet there is no credit in being honest or intelligent by birth. Just as one is surely no more responsible for being a criminal by nature than for being a criminal by circumstance. But those rascals want grace, that is irresponsibility, and they shamelessly allege the justifications of nature or the excuses of circumstances, even if they are contradictory. The essential thing is that they should be innocent, that their virtues, by grace of birth, should not be questioned and that their misdeeds, born of a momentary misfortune, should never be more than provisional. As I told you, it’s a matter of dodging judgment. Since it is hard to dodge it, tricky to get one’s nature simultaneously admired and excused, they all strive to be rich. Why? Did you ever ask yourself? For power, of course. But especially because wealth shields from immediate judgment, takes you out of the subway crowd to enclose you in a chromium-plated automobile, isolates you in huge protected lawns, Pullmans, first-class cabins. Wealth, cher ami, is not quite acquittal, but reprieve, and that’s always worth taking. Above all, don’t believe your friends when they ask you to be sincere with them. They merely hope you will encourage them in the good opinion they have of themselves by providing them with the additional assurance they will find in your promise of sincerity. How could sincerity be a condition of friendship? A liking for truth at any cost is a passion that spares nothing and that nothing resists. It’s a vice, at times a comfort, or a selfishness. Therefore, if you are in that situation, don’t hesitate: promise to tell the truth and then lie as best you can. You will satisfy their hidden desire and doubly prove your affection.
”
”
Albert Camus (The Fall)
“
When reframed in this way, critics often accuse couples intent on pursuing ART of being selfish for expending so much time, energy, and resources to have a biological connection to their child when they could pursue adoption in-stead. But beyond the practical barrier of adoption not being accessible to all prospective parents in all contexts given variables of age, sexual orientation, marital status, and the pool of available children, what is missing in this anti-ART/pro-adoption position is an explanation for why the criticism of narcissism or selfishness is directed primarily at couples who use ART, not also at those intent on bearing children the old-fashioned way through intercourse.
Why must those who cannot reproduce "naturally" be put in the position of having to justify their desire to have "their own" child — why isn't every prospective parent pressed to give an account?
”
”
Grace Kao (My Body, Their Baby: A Progressive Christian Vision for Surrogacy (Encountering Traditions))
“
suddenly hit with waves of guilt. My friends, even some relatives and my own mother often accused me of not being selfish enough. The charge was that I was guilty of sacrificing my own wishes and desires for the wishes and desires of my husband and daughter. Their needs always came first. However, no matter what was said to me about it, I didn’t change. Frankly, when it came to friends and relatives, even my own mother, I thought I was selfish enough; it was they who were too selfish. Many of my friends had broken or fragile marriages because of this attitude, and most had much bigger and more serious problems with their children than Ronnie and I had with Kelly.
”
”
Andrew Neiderman (Lost in His Eyes: Romantic suspense)
“
Danger signals in potential partners [related to subjugation]
1. Your partner is domineering and expects to have things his/her way.
2. Your partner has a very strong sense of self and knows exactly what he/she wants in most situations.
3. Your partner becomes irritated or angry when you disagree or attend to your own needs.
4. Your partner does not respect your opinions, needs, or rights.
5. Your partner pouts or pulls away from you when you do things your way.
6. Your partner is easily hurt or upset, so you feel you have to take care of him/her.
7. You have to watch what you do or say carefully because your partner drinks a lot or has a bad temper.
8. Your partner is not very competent or together, so you end up having to do a lot of the work.
9. Your partner is irresponsible or unreliable, so you have to be overly responsible and reliable.
10. You let your partner make most of the choices because most of the time you do not feel strongly one way or the other.
11. Your partner makes you feel guilt or accuses you of being selfish when you ask to do something your way.
12. Your partner becomes sad, worried, or depressed easily, so you end up doing most of the listening.
13. Your partner is very needy and dependent on you.
”
”
Jeffrey Young (Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthrough Program to End Negative Behavior...and Feel Great Again)
“
Look after your own skin.! Whether they are family or friends, manipulators are difficult to escape from if u get blinded by their Love. Give in to their demands and they will be happy enough, but if you develop a spine and start saying no, it will inevitably bring a fresh round of head games and emotional blackmail. U will notice that breaking free from someone else’s dominance will often result in them accusing you of being selfish. Yes, you r selfish, because you hv stopped doing what they want you to do for them.
You must always be 10 steps ahead to survive.
Powerless people use various tactics, such as getting upset, withdrawing, nagging, ridiculing, pouting, crying, or getting angry, to pressure, manipulate, and punish one another into keeping this pact. However, this ongoing power play does nothing to make them happy and mitigate their anxiety in the long term. In fact, their anxiety only escalates by continually affirming that they are not actually powerful. Any sense of love and safety they feel by gaining or surrendering control is tenuous and fleeting. A relational bond built on mutual control simply cannot produce anything remotely like safety, love, or trust. It can only produce more fear, pain, distrust, punishment, and misery. And when taken to an extreme, it produces things like domestic violence.
”
”
Nkahloleng Eric Mohlala
“
It’s pure hypocrisy! People call others selfish for not doing what they want them to do. They hate it when other people’s selfishness
gets in the way of their own. It’s not at all surprising that the hypocrites who accuse suicides of being selfish also accuse them of being cowardly. Living solely for other people—you know what I call that? Slavery. And there’s nothing more cowardly than choosing to be a slave.
”
”
Ryan Ruby (The Zero and the One)