“
I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish… You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger.
”
”
Simone de Beauvoir
“
Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.
”
”
Theodore Roosevelt
“
The capitalist and consumerist ethics are two sides of the same coin, a merger of two commandments. The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’ The capitalist–consumerist ethic is revolutionary in another respect. Most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. They were promised paradise, but only if they cultivated compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger, and restrained their selfish interests. This was too tough for most. The history of ethics is a sad tale of wonderful ideals that nobody can live up to. Most Christians did not imitate Christ, most Buddhists failed to follow Buddha, and most Confucians would have caused Confucius a temper tantrum. In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist–consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money and that the masses give free reign to their cravings and passions and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do. How though do we know that we'll really get paradise in return? We've seen it on television.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (קיצור תולדות האנושות)
“
Fleabag: I have a horrible feeling I'm a greedy, perverted, selfish, apathetic, cynical, depraved, mannish-looking, morally bankrupt woman who can't even call herself a feminist.
Dad: Well... You get all that from your mother.
”
”
Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag: The Original Play)
“
He was greedy and rude and bitter, but he was still a healer. The parson, though, what was he? He was nothing. Belief is half of all healing. Belief in the cure, belief in the future that awaits. And here was a man who lived on belief, but who sacrificed it at the first challenge, right when he needed it most. He believed selfishly and fearfully. And it took the lives of his daughters.
”
”
Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls)
“
Koschei smiled. His pale lips sought hers, crushing her into a kiss like dying. She tasted sweetness there, as though he still kissed her with honey and sugar on his tongue. When he pulled away, his eyes shone.
"I don't care, Marya Morevna. Kiss him. Take him to your bed, and the vila, too, for all it matters to me. Do you understand me, wife? There need never be any rules between us. Let us be greedy together; let us hoard. Let us hit each other with birch branches and lock each other in dungeons; let us drink each other's blood in the night and betray each other in the sun. Let us lie and lust and take hundreds of lovers; let us dance until snow melts beneath us. Let us steal and eat until we grow fat and roll in the pleasures of life, clutching each other for purchase. Only leave me my death — let me hold this one thing sacred and unmolested and secret — and I will serve you a meal myself, served on a platter of all the world's bounty. Only do not leave me, swear that you will never leave me, and no empress will stand higher. Forget the girls in the factory. Be selfish and cruel and think nothing of them. I am selfish. I am cruel. My mate cannot be less than I. I will have you in my hoard, Marya Morevna, my black mirror.
”
”
Catherynne M. Valente (Deathless)
“
He was probably selfish in the sack. Probably selfish and greedy and...unsophisticated. And hung like a horse.
”
”
Josh Lanyon (Fatal Shadows (The Adrien English Mysteries, #1))
“
Happiness comes from righteous living and the development of a noble character. You can observe this by noticing that people who are truly happy are honest, unselfish, kind, responsible and have a high moral standards. On the other hand, unhappy people are invariably selfish, lazy, irresponsible and lacking of self discipline. And people who are miserable tend to be immoral, dishonest, greedy, cruel, or in other ways dark in character.
”
”
Helen B. Andelin
“
And yet there was something about his strength, his arrogance, his sheer size that got under my skin. He probably couldn't even spell vanilla. He was probably selfish in the sack. Probably selfish and greedy and...unsophisticated. And hung like a horse.
”
”
Josh Lanyon (Fatal Shadows (The Adrien English Mysteries, #1))
“
Money doesn't change men, it merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish or arrogant or greedy, the money brings that out, that's all.
”
”
Henry Ford
“
....I understood why those who had lived through war or economic disasters, and who had built for themselves a good life and a high standard of living, were rightly proud to be able to provide for their children those things which they themselves had not had. And why their children, inevitably, took those things for granted. It meant that new values and new expectations had crept into our societies along with new standards of living. Hence the materialistic and often greedy and selfish lifestyle of so many young people in the Western world, especially in the United States.
”
”
Jane Goodall (Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey)
“
Children of the new morning, criminal minds. Selfish and greedy and loveless and blind.
”
”
Tony Kushner (Millennium Approaches (Angels in America, #1))
“
Don’t be selfish in life; pass the ball. Winners in life’s game are people who demonstrate that they are not greedy when they have abundant of supply. They share freely provided they have it! That defines the true state of a purposeful person.
”
”
Israelmore Ayivor (The Great Hand Book of Quotes)
“
Severine was a greedy, selfish person. She wanted everything. Right now, sitting here with Thayer, she wanted to keep this moment forever. Nothing gave her the right to desire it so much.
”
”
Calia Read (Every Which Way (Sloan Brothers, #1))
“
THE UNFORGIVEN
Tell me if you've ever had to deal with these kinds of people:
The kind who take and don't give.
The kind to whom you give and give,
And they keep asking.
The kind to whom you give and give and they say you gave nothing.
The kind whom have never offered anything,
But act like they're the ones providing
EVERYTHING.
The kind you give and give,
But take more than you can give.
And when they have already taken everything,
They get mad at you when you say you have
Nothing more to give.
The unforgiving,
The misgiving,
Wastefully living -
And selfishly driven.
The rat that never gives back,
Yet is so quick to attack -
Because they think the word
TAKING
Seriously means
GIVING.
”
”
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
“
I hope you know how beautiful and freeing it was to love you when you were here.
You were the love of my life.
Maybe it’s selfish to want more; maybe it’s greedy to want another love like that.
But I can’t help it.
I do.
”
”
Taylor Jenkins Reid (One True Loves)
“
Stop being so greedy, and so selfish. Realize that there is more to the world than your big houses and fancy stores. People are starving and you worry about oil for your cars. Babies are dying of thirst and you search the fashion pages for the latest styles. Nations like ours are drowing in poverty, but your people don't even hear our cries for help. You shut your ears to the voices of those who try to tell you these things. You label them radicals or Communists. You must open your hearts to the poor and downtrodden, instead of driving them further into poverty and servitude. There's not much time left. If you don't change, you're doomed.
”
”
John Perkins (The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals & the Truth about Global Corruption)
“
What do you want?’
‘All of it.’ She laughed, but there was something brittle in the sound that broke his heart. ‘I’m selfish and greedy and want all. I want everything I can snatch up and hold, then I want to go back and get more. Why can’t I want the simple and the ordinary and the quiet, Aidan? Why can’t I be content with easy dreams?’
‘You’re so hard on yourself, mavourneen. Harder than anyone else can be. Some people want the simple and the ordinary and the quiet. It doesn’t make those who want the complicated and extraordinary and the exciting greedy or selfish. Wanting’s wanting, whatever the dream.
”
”
Nora Roberts (Heart of the Sea (Gallaghers of Ardmore, #3))
“
You can dress up greed, but you can’t stop the stench.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
It's simple. Mankind is a sorry excuse for living creatures. They are cruel, cold, merciless, selfish, heartless, wasteful, greedy, and destructive. But the list goes on. I can spend all night telling you what’s wrong with them, but why bother?
”
”
Charles Lee (The Way To Dawn)
“
Children are bad enough--children are rude, selfish, greedy, and unthinking individuals who are unable to distinguish between their own selfish wants and needs and the wants and needs of others. And adults are children with money, alcohol, and power.
”
”
Ian Sansom
“
Greed is a contagious mental illness without which civilization as we know it would not have been possible.
”
”
Mokokoma Mokhonoana (The Use and Misuse of Children)
“
Being ‘all about myself’ is the surest way that I can end up being ‘all by myself.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Read any women's magazine and you'll see the same complaint over and over again: men - those little boys ten or twenty or thirty years on - are hopeless in bed. They are not interested in "foreplay"; they have no desire to stimulate the erogenous zones of the opposite sex; they are selfish, greedy, clumsy, unsophisticated. These complaints, you can't help feeling, are ironic. Back then, all we wanted was foreplay, and girls weren't interested. They didn't want to be touched, caressed, stimulated, aroused; in fact, they used to thump us if we tried. It's not really very suprising, then, that we're not much good at all that. We spent two or three long and extremely formative years being told very forcibly not even to think about it. Between the ages of fourteen and twenty-four, foreplay changes from being something that boys want to do and girls don't, to something that women want and men can't be bothered with. (Or so they say. Me, I like foreplay - mostly because the times when all I wanted to do was touch are alarmingly fresh in my mind.) The perfect match, if you ask me, is between the Cosmo woman and the fourteen-year-old boy.
”
”
Nick Hornby (High Fidelity)
“
Gods, that you would have granted me this boon when she wed me and with it gave me one night of this hot, greedy tart rather than the cold, selfish fish you gave me,” he muttered, my eyes moved to him and I saw he was speaking to the ceiling in audible prayer.
”
”
Kristen Ashley (Fantastical (Fantasyland, #3))
“
The difference of loving someone and being in love, Ren, is loving someone can be full of obligation and self-denial. But being in love makes you selfish and greedy and hungry. It turns you into a self-serving monster because you can't breathe unless you have the one person you need.
”
”
Pepper Winters (The Girl & Her Ren (The Ribbon Duet, #2))
“
Punishment? You don’t have any right to punish me. And I can curse. I choose not to most of the time, but don’t think it doesn’t go through my head, asshole. I was trying to give you something. I was trying to give you my body.”
“That’s where you fucked up, little girl. I don’t want your body. I want your soul. I want your everything. And I definitely want your orgasms. I want them all. I’ll be a greedy bastard, savoring them and hoarding them all for myself. You wanted to give me your body? I can buy that on a street corner, sweetheart. You’re the one who’s being selfish now.”
“How is it selfish to offer to have sex? I don’t understand what you want.”
“First off, I want you to stop hiding yourself from me. You’re the one making this tawdry by pretending it’s dirty and not worthy of the light of day.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
“We’re going to do this my way. We tried yours and it didn’t work, so I’m taking control. I should have done it in the first place.
”
”
Lexi Blake (A Dom is Forever (Masters and Mercenaries, #3))
“
I eat too much. I drink to much. A greedy selfish such-n-such. But when I wrap my turban on my mind is clear, I'm 'Baba Lon'.
”
”
Lon Milo DuQuette (Ask Baba Lon: Answers to Questions of Life and Magick)
“
For their never-ending endeavours to obtain or retain wealth, countries desperately need companies, because they—unlike most human beings—have the means of production, and human beings, because they—unlike all companies—have the means of reproduction.
”
”
Mokokoma Mokhonoana (The Use and Misuse of Children)
“
We live in a cruel world. People are dreadfully cold. I have never seen so many dishonest, selfish and greedy people. They are willing to use others until they get exactly what they want. What makes matters even worse, after they get what they want, they come back and ask for more. Sadly, people do not have any empathy for others. They are like leeches and will suck the blood out of you until you have nothing left.
”
”
Charlena E. Jackson (A Woman's Love Is Never Good Enough)
“
She was struck by the selfish thought that this was not fair to her. That she’d been in the middle of a different story, one that had nothing to do with this. She was a person who was finding her daughter, making things right with her daughter, and there was no room in that story for the idiocy of extreme religion, the violence of men she’d never met. Just as she’d been in the middle of a story about divorce when the towers fell in New York City, throwing everyone’s careful plans to shit. Just as she’d once been in a story about raising her own brother, growing up with her brother in the city on their own, making it in the world, when the virus and the indifference of greedy men had steamrolled through. She thought of Nora, whose art and love were interrupted by assassination and war. Stupid men and their stupid violence, tearing apart everything good that was ever built. Why couldn’t you ever just go after your life without tripping over some idiot’s dick?
”
”
Rebecca Makkai (The Great Believers)
“
Our little tribal circles, bound by social contracts and selfish mutual need. Everyone working in their own greedy self-interests and huddling together with their tribe, at war with all those outside who they regard as barely human. What breaks a human mind out of that iron cage of mistrust, is a sacrifice. The martyr who gives up everything, who abandons all personal gain, who lays down his life for the good of those outside his group. He becomes a symbol all can rally around. So instead of trying to make a selfish, violent primate somehow empathize with the whole world, which is impossible, you only need to get him to remember and love the martyr. As one is forgotten, another must replace it.
”
”
David Wong (This Book Is Full of Spiders (John Dies at the End, #2))
“
Beware of those who are always hungry, for they will feed you to the wolves just to get paid.
”
”
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
“
The shortest short-term investment is to serve ourselves.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Greed is the thief of the soul.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
In my impatience I become convinced that this desire of mine should have been fulfilled yesterday, when it belongs to a tomorrow that yesterday would have killed had I had my way.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
I’m owed nothing, but I’ve been gifted with everything. As such, I owe everything the commitment that I will never find myself treating ‘everything’ as ‘nothing’.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Don't ever feel sad about who you are. Don't wish to be a daughter or son to a wealthy home, just because you think you're poor. Look! Everybody's poor, i discovered it when i realized that its not everything that President Barrack Obama has.
”
”
Michael Bassey Johnson
“
Take a good look at the times. It is inevitable that greedy men, who close their eyes and obstruct the tide of the times with their selfishness, will be burned up together with the fallen leaves.
”
”
Eiji Yoshikawa (Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan)
“
There are really only two ways, it seems to me, in which we can think about our existence here on earth. We either agree with Macbeth that life is nothing more than a “tale told by an idiot,” a purposeless emergence of life-forms including the clever, greedy, selfish, and unfortunately destructive species that we call Homo sapiens—the “evolutionary goof.” Or we believe that, as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin put it, “There is something afoot in the universe, something that looks like gestation and birth.” In other words, a plan, a purpose to it all.
”
”
Jane Goodall (Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey)
“
When your child is a little older, you can teach him about our tax system in a way that is easy to grasp. Offer him, say, $10 to mow the lawn. When he has mowed it and asks to be paid, withhold $5 and explain that this is income tax. Give $1 to his younger brother, and tell him that this is "fair". Also, explain that you need the other $4 yourself to cover the administrative costs of dividing the money. When he cries, tell him he is being "selfish" and "greedy". Later in life he will thank you.
”
”
Joseph Sobran
“
Most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. They were promised paradise, but only if they cultivated compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger, and restrained their selfish interests. This was too tough for most. The history of ethics is a sad tale of wonderful ideals that nobody can live up to. Most Christians did not imitate Christ, most Buddhists failed to follow Buddha, and most Confucians would have caused Confucius a temper tantrum. In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist–consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money, and that the masses give free rein to their cravings and passions – and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do. How, though, do we know that we’ll really get paradise in return? We’ve seen it on television.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind)
“
Independence that has declared its ‘independence’ from the sure and certain compass of sound morals is nothing more than rogue greed having scantily dressed itself in the garb of independence while running off the cliff of anarchy.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Stop being so greedy," she said, "and so selfish. Realize that there is more to the world than your big houses and fancy stores. People are starving and you worry about oil for your cars. Babies are dying of thirst and you search the fashion magazines for the latest styles. Nations like ours are drowning in poverty, but your people don't even hear our cries for help. You shut your ears to the voices of those who try to tell you these things. You label them radicals or Communists. You must open your hearts to the poor and downtrodden, instead of driving them further into poverty and servitude. There's not much time left. If you don't change, you're doomed.
”
”
John Perkins (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man)
“
It was Kellanved – all of this. Him and Dancer. They used Tavore Paran from the very start. They used all of us, Hedge.’
‘That’s what gods do, aye. So you don’t like it? Fine, but listen to me. Sometimes, what they want – what they need us to do – sometimes it’s all right. I mean, it’s the right thing to do. Sometimes, it makes us better people.’
‘You really believe that?’
‘And when we’re better people, we make better gods.’
Fiddler looked away. ‘It’s hopeless, then. We can stuff a god with every virtue we got, it still won’t make us any better, will it? Because we’re not good with virtues, Hedge.’
‘Most of the time, aye, we’re not. But maybe then, at our worst, we might look up, we might see that god we made out of the best in us. Not vicious, not vengeful, not arrogant or spiteful. Not selfish, not greedy. Just clear-eyed, with no time for all our rubbish. The kind of god to give us a slap in the face for being such shits.
”
”
Steven Erikson (The Crippled God (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #10))
“
Maskini mwenye pesa nyingi ni tajiri bahili. Tajiri mwenye mifuko iliyotoboka ni tajiri badhiri.
”
”
Enock Maregesi
“
If I’m my biggest fan, the only person in the stadium is probably me.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Narcissists may be self-important, manipulative, selfish and greedy, but they can fall in love just as easily as the rest of us.
”
”
A.B. Jamieson (Prepare to be tortured: - the price you will pay for dating a narcissist)
“
If it’s about me, I can be assured that there will be a bunch of empty chairs in the auditorium of my life; save the one I’m sitting in.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
The selfish are seldom secure.
”
”
Wayne Gerard Trotman
“
Addiction takes and takes and keeps on taking. It’s the most greedy and selfish thing in the entire world.
”
”
Jay Crownover (Recovered)
“
All your life, you have heard yourself denounced, not for your faults, but for your greatest virtues. You have been hated, not for your mistakes, but for your achievements. You have been scorned for all those qualities of character which are your highest pride. You have been called selfish for the courage of acting on your own judgment and bearing sole responsibility for your own life. You have been called arrogant for your independent mind. You have been called cruel for your unyielding integrity. You have been called anti-social for the vision that made you venture upon undiscovered roads. You have been called ruthless for the strength and self-discipline of your drive to your purpose. You have been called greedy for the magnificence of your power to create wealth.
”
”
Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged)
“
You're greedy, her mother had said to her quietly, that last night in New York, as she had packed her things. Greedy and selfish. It's not the knowledge you want, you can have that from your journals. you want to be in the newspapers, you want to be Marie Curie, you wat to think you're different from all of us. That all other women are silly and complacent and conventional, except you, brilliant you.
”
”
Beatriz Williams (The Secret Life of Violet Grant (Schuyler Sisters, #1))
“
I pretend to give gifts that people pretend to be gifts so that I can pretend that I gave something that actually cost me something. And what pretending of this sort gives me is the gift of a pretend life.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Heri kuishi kama maskini mwenye pesa nyingi kuliko tajiri mwenye mifuko iliyotoboka, kuliko kusema mbele za watu kwamba pesa haijakupa furaha. Wengi hupata jeuri ya kusema hivyo kutokana na umaskini wa watu wanaowazunguka.
”
”
Enock Maregesi
“
Selfishness is not identical with self-love but with its very opposite. Selfishness is one kind of greediness. Like all greediness, it contains an insatiability, as a consequence of which there is never any real satisfaction. Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.
”
”
Erich Fromm (Escape from Freedom)
“
I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life," said Simone de Beauvoir. "I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish….You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger.''
I tend more to frustration than anger, but otherwise I know precisely what de Beauvoir means. I want twenty-four hours more in each day, and nine consecutive lives to live, for I am greedy for life and art as well, with all their occasionally conflicting demands. I want as much time as possible to continue to work hard and learn. I'm greedy for it all.
”
”
Terri Windling
“
I thought carefully about the events of the evening and decided that there must be limitations on desires. It wasn't true that I could have anything I wanted. I felt good about understanding that, but I still didn't know how people figured out what it was safe to want. I did know, from my mother's scolding, that 'wanting' was a problem. If the desire could not be filled, then I was greedy and selfish. Since I couldn't figure out how to judge the possibility of fulfilling a desire. (66).
”
”
Joan Frances Casey (The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality)
“
Anyway, most of the chapter is Bella telling us how much pain she's in. First she's about to die because delivering Optimus Beyonce nearly killed her. And then she goes on and on about how hot and awful the vampire venom feels as it takes hold of her body.
She's in agony and there's nothing she can do about it. Good! I hope it hurts.
This is what you get, Bella Swan. This is what you get for being a greedy, self-centered jerk. This is what happens to people who let thousands die in Italy. This is what you get for ruining Jacob's life and ignoring your human friends because you'd rather spend time with pretty people. This is what happens to selfish brats that have no regard for their family. This is what you get for being weak and dependent. This is what you get for lying to your father. This is what you get for crying and complaining about your perfect life. This is what you get for spending pages and pages describing freaking magnets! THIS IS WHAT YOU GET!
I only wish the pain lasted longer than a chapter. An entire book of Bella's torture would be nice. And maybe if the book were illustrated…with Octo-Bears…I would finally sympathize with this, the least likable character in the history of novels.
Bella, I do not care one tiny bit that you're in pain.
”
”
Dan Bergstein
“
Yes, there are times when the world turns upside down, logic becomes subject to the muse of reckless interpretation, truth becomes the bed-child of selfish goals, and people are off on a wild course that bludgeons everyone they once loved or anyone who gets in the way of what they now purport to love.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough (The Eighth Page: A Christmas Journey)
“
If I’m living without being thankful, I’m not living. It may be that I’m not even existing. In fact, it may be that all I’m doing is waiting for death to show up without even realizing it. Therefore, I’d welcome anything that would drive me to being thankful for it is that which would drive me to living.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
The Realistic Vision recognizes the need for strict moral education through parents, family, friends, and community because people have a dual nature of being selfish and selfless, competitive and cooperative, greedy and generous, and so we need rules and guidelines and encouragement to do the right thing.
”
”
Michael Shermer (Brain, Belief, and Politics (Cato Unbound Book 92011))
“
No one as consistently, spectacularly, and admittedly greedy as Donald Trump could possibly give two poops about us. Absolutely impossible. I will go so far as to say that, if elected, Donald Trump would be the least likely President in the history of our nation to do anything for any of us that wouldn't also benefit him.
”
”
Gizmo, The Puzzled Puppy (What Donald Trump Supporters Need to Know: But Are Too Infatuated to Figure Out)
“
Faith itself became a “good work” that I could perform, and the ego was back in charge. Such a mechanical notion of salvation frequently led to all the right religious words, without much indication of self-critical or culturally critical behavior. Usually, there was little removal of most “defects of character,” and many Christians have remained thoroughly materialistic, warlike, selfish, racist, sexist, and greedy for power and money—while relying on “amazing grace” to snatch them into heaven at the end.
”
”
Richard Rohr (Breathing Underwater)
“
It has never been very easy for me to live, though I am always very happy—maybe because I want so much to be happy. I like so much to live and I hate the idea of dying one day. And then I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life, I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, and to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish... You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger.
”
”
Simone de Beauvoir (A Transatlantic Love Affair: Letters to Nelson Algren)
“
Mtu anayesema pesa haijampa furaha hana nia ya kusaidia watu.
”
”
Enock Maregesi
“
Toa msaada katika jamii iliyosaidia kukulea ulipokuwa mdogo.
”
”
Enock Maregesi
“
The problem is not that we don’t recognize the truth when we hear it. The problem is that we don’t want to recognize what the truth might mean for us if we hear it.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough (A View From the Front Porch: Encounters With Life and Jesus)
“
I am selfish by habit, but sacrificial by nature. Therefore, I’d be wise to develop the habit of following my nature.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
The thing that I’m most likely to collapse under is not the weight of the stresses that stand around me, but the ego that sits within me.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
The greatest cause involves the decision not to make myself the greatest cause.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
If I’m the only person at my party it’s probably because the party is about one person. And if it’s only about one person, it’s not a party.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Be assured that whatever it is, there will be nothing ‘in it for me’ if I approach it from the perspective of ‘what’s in it for me.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
The best I can do is to ‘pretend’ that I’m my own god. But in the pretending I have to pretend that I’m not pretending, and somehow that doesn’t sound very god-like to me.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
A cause that only serves me is much like a door on the edge of a cliff, it doesn’t open to anywhere good.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Five of the most dangerous words I know: ‘What’s in it for me?
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Greed is the fast-track to poverty.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
A greedy man, even if he has much, still wishes to have more.
”
”
Jacob Grimm
“
Most people, he concluded, were selfish, greedy, unprincipled, venal, utterly irredeemable shit-eaters, but he’d also observed that these same people were highly sensitive to criticism.
”
”
Richard Russo (Empire Falls)
“
We are violating every aspect of life by turning everything into a ripoff because we have adopted the view that insatiable individualistic greed must run the world. We are living in a very dangerous age in which insatiably greedy men are prepared to sacrifice anybody’s health and tranquility to satisfy their own insatiable greed for money and power. I am aghast at what selfishness, and the drive for power have done to our society. I worry as I find the world so increasingly horrible that I do not see how anything as wonderful as your life can escape. The best thing you can do is to keep some enclaves of satisfying decent life. I am fed up with everything but God and nature and human beings (whom I love and pity, as I always did). I feel glad I am a Christian, glad that I am without allegiance to any bloc, party, or groups, except to our Judeo-Christian tradition (modified by science and common sense). God keep you all and help you to grow.
”
”
Carroll Quigley
“
Now both Sun and Wind were greedy and selfish. They enjoyed the great feast that had been prepared for them, without a thought of saving any of it to take home to their mother--but the gentle Moon did not forget her. Of every dainty dish that was brought round, she placed a small portion under one of her beautiful long finger-nails, that Star might also have a share in the treat.
”
”
Joseph Jacobs (Indian Fairy Tales)
“
Leave the quarters of the close-fisted selfishness and live in the edifice of an open-handed generosity. God gives to you, so you can share when it's required of you! Give out; conquer greed!
”
”
Israelmore Ayivor (Daily Drive 365)
“
It wouldn’t be Hogswatch when I was a kid without a pillowcase hanging by the fire—” “A pillowcase?” said the Senior Wrangler, sharply. “Well, you can’t get much in a stocking,” said the Dean. “Yes, but a whole pillowcase?” the Senior Wrangler insisted. “Yes. What of it?” “Is it just me, or is that a rather greedy and selfish way to behave? In my family we just hung up very small socks,
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Hogfather (Discworld, #20))
“
Being my own cause is to position the world around me so that the entirety of it would be at my disposal. And if there’s one way to rather quickly and efficiently dispose of my life, this would be it.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Was she jealous?” “She was,” he said, not yelling now, “and domineering, and spoiled, and suspicious, and greedy, and mean, and unscrupulous, and deceitful, and selfish, and damned bad—altogether damned bad!
”
”
Dashiell Hammett (Red Harvest (Continental Op, #1))
“
Humans are the worst animals of them all. We’re selfish, greedy, and envious. We do what we can to survive, to have a better life, and sometimes we don’t always do what’s right, but that doesn’t make it wrong.
”
”
Demi Vice (Prison Promise (Prison Saints, #1))
“
Then Stephen must tell her the cruel truth, she must say: ‘I am one of those whom God marked on the forehead. Like Cain, I am marked and blemished. If you come to me, Mary, the world will abhor you, will persecute you, will call you unclean. Our love may be faithful even unto death and beyond — yet the world will call it unclean. We may harm no living creature by our love; we may grow more perfect in understanding and in charity because of our loving; but all this will not save you from the scourge of a world that will turn away its eyes from your noblest actions, finding only corruption and vileness in you. You will see men and women defiling each other, laying the burden of their sins upon their children. You will see unfaithfulness, lies and deceit among those whom the world views with approbation. You will find that many have grown hard of heart, have grown greedy, selfish, cruel and lustful; and then you will turn to me and will say: “You and I are more worthy of respect than these people. Why does the world persecute us, Stephen?” And I shall answer: “Because in this world there is only toleration for the so-called normal.” And when you come to me for protection, I shall say: “I cannot protect you, Mary, the world has deprived me of my right to protect; I am utterly helpless, I can only love you”.
”
”
Radclyffe Hall (The Well of Loneliness)
“
I know there are some heartless, greedy, selfish criminals who call themselves politicians, pastors, prophets or business people, who will steal money that is suppose to help in this corona virus. If you are that politician, pastor, prophet or business person, may you suffer with everything you have and will all your riches & wealth . May you never find happiness, joy & peace in your life, until you pay every cent that you stole from the people.
”
”
De philosopher DJ Kyos
“
There is a philosophy by which many people live their lives, and it is this: life is a shit sandwich, but the more bread you've got, the less shit you have to eat.
These people are often selfish brats as kids, and they don't get better with age: think of the shifty-eyed smarmy asshole from the sixth form who grow up to be a merchant banker, or an estate agent, or one of the Conservative Party funny-handshake mine's a Rolex brigade.
(This isn't to say that all estate agents, or merchant bankers, or conservatives are selfish, but that these are ways of life that provide opportunities of a certain disposition to enrich themselves at the expense of others. Bear with me.)
There is another philosophy by which people live their lives, and it goes thus: You will do as I say or I will hurt you.
. . . Let me draw you a Venn diagram with two circles on it, denoting sets of individuals. They overlap: the greedy ones and the authoritarian ones. Let's shade in the intersecting area in a different color and label it: dangerous. Greed isn't automatically dangerous on its won, and petty authoritarians aren't usually dangerous outside their immediate vicinity -- but when you combine the two, you get gangsters and dictators and hate-spewing preachers.
”
”
Charles Stross (The Fuller Memorandum (Laundry Files, #3))
“
If I demand that I be the captain of my own ship, I’ll probably be spending most of my time in a lifeboat. And if I then demand to be the captain of the lifeboat, I’ll probably be spending all of my time being the lunch of something that doesn’t care that I’m a captain.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
To condemn what we see as selfish, greedy, egoic, or evil behavior and to seek to suppress it by force without addressing the underlying wound is futile: the pain will always find another expression. Herein lies a key realization of interbeing. It says, “I would do as you do, if I were you.
”
”
Charles Eisenstein (The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible (Sacred Activism Book 2))
“
We don’t care about causing pain to others, don’t even consider it. We don’t ask ourselves if these desires once fulfilled actually filled us at all…I’m not afraid to be a greedy, prideful, lustful, shallow-hearted bastard like the rest of them. I’m scared to death that I’m not like them, that I can’t live with what I’ve done.
”
”
Kelleen Goerlitz (The Complete Works of a Lost Girl)
“
Who amongst us can claim true satisfaction from living a hedonistic lifestyle? Why I loathe myself with sufficient fury to dream of murdering myself is no great mystery. Making a pact with the devil’s henchmen, I callously plodded along tackling one superficial milepost after another, conquering thinly guised goals that reek of greediness and self-indulgence, all in a futile effort to stave off the inevitability of my doom. My professional work was devoted to promoting the private agenda of clients with ample cash to spare. I spent free time shopping for baubles. Similar to other Americans caught up in securing acquisitions and escaping through mindless recreational activities, shopping and pleasure seeking was my mantra.
”
”
Kilroy J. Oldster (Dead Toad Scrolls)
“
Choose something big that you think it’s really not okay to want, something you think would make you seem greedy or selfish if you asked for it. And make sure it’s something you really do want. Then ask for it. Whether you get it or not, fight your impulse to apologize or feel bad. Tell yourself it’s okay to want what you want. Combat the impulse to scale back out of fear that you’re overreaching.
”
”
Linda Babcock (Ask For It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want)
“
When I look up and finally meet Mrs. Henderson’s eye, I see her for what she is: a coward. A greedy, selfish coward who doesn’t give a shit about her students. And I realize, again, how disappointing it is to realize that the adults who are supposed to be looking out for you are only looking out for themselves. This time, I’m not going to let her flick me away like I’m a piece of lint. This bitch is coming down with me.
”
”
Jesse Q. Sutanto (The New Girl)
“
Does it follow, then, that progressives and socialists are entirely wrong when they say that there are rich people in the top 1 percent who are greedy selfish leeches, who don’t deserve their money and who have gotten it by contributing little or nothing to society? Actually, no! Such people do exist, and they can be found among the ranks of the progressives and socialists themselves. Let’s consider a few notorious examples.
”
”
Dinesh D'Souza (United States of Socialism: Who's Behind It. Why It's Evil. How to Stop It.)
“
I would respect feminist who said "Single moms, are you kidding me? Stop taking government benefits because, the government is the patriarchy. So, you are taking things from the patriarchy so you dont have to be responsible. Any woman who takes money from the government using cops who usually extract it from men by force is not a feminist. Is a exceedingly bad bride of the state." I would admire that but, of course feminism doesn't have anything to do with any of that stuff.
Look, it's fine. Have your fun. Make fun of men. Go for it. Yea, we're all idiots, we're all selfish, greedy bastards. Ok, it's fine because the government is going to run out of money soon and then all these woman are going to try to find some guy to latch onto when the benefits stop flowing and I mean, you saw this happening with the soviet union. "Now we need you! You guys are great! We missed you so much! Give me some money!"
It's just a bunch of noise from a bunch of people who are stealing from the productive.
”
”
Stefan Molyneux
“
The difference between selfish people and generous people is like the difference between day and night.
While selfish people think about getting everything for themselves, take things for granted, and harm others by their greediness and non stop desires, generous people are the ones who keep this life going, they are generous with their time, money, health, knowledge, skills, and emotions, they are the sun that keeps life warm and thriving. Try to be one of the generous; and remember no one ever likes a selfish person.
”
”
Noora Ahmed Alsuwaidi
“
And a large man at the end of the table stood up and drank to the memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt. We were beginning to understand the quality of Roosevelt’s memory in the world, and the great sense of tragedy at his death. And I remembered a story that I had heard one time. Within a week of the death of Lincoln, the news of his death had penetrated even to the middle of Africa, sometimes on the drums, and sometimes carried by runners. The news traveled that a world tragedy had taken place. And it seems to us that it does not matter what the Roosevelt-haters think or say, it doesn’t even matter, actually, what Roosevelt was in the flesh. What does matter is that his name is throughout the world a symbol of wisdom, and kindness, and understanding. In the minds of little people all over the world he has ceased to be a man and has become a principle. And those men who attack him now, and attack his memory, do not hurt his name at all, but simply define themselves as the mean, the greedy, the selfish, and the stupid. Roosevelt’s name is far beyond the reach of small minds and dirty hands
”
”
John Steinbeck (A Russian Journal)
“
The second part of the socialist temptation involves the serpents—I mean the socialists—themselves. This is a class of people that has no idea how to create wealth. Pretty much the only thing they know how to create is words. This does not mean, however, that they are untalented. They are actually very talented, just not at making iPhones or warehouse delivery systems or getting oil out of the ground. Resentful of those who can do these things, the socialists proclaim them “selfish” and “greedy” and imply that such vices are responsible for their notable prosperity and success.
”
”
Dinesh D'Souza (United States of Socialism: Who's Behind It. Why It's Evil. How to Stop It.)
“
But the cat—the cat represents all vices of human nature. The cat is selfish, greedy, vain; the most a cat will do for its master is allow you to pet it. Not that a cat thinks of man as its master, no sir, it’s the other way around. Why a cat wouldn’t lift a paw in defense of its home and hearth but would likely as not sup on your flesh after the vagabonds killed you and violated your wife and daughter. Cats ain’t ever earned their keep but what they wanted to do on their own anyhow. I’ve seen too many mousers got to rot soon as they get even a hint of table scraps,” said Porter, with some venom. “Cats, bah!
”
”
David J. West (Scavengers: A Porter Rockwell Adventure (Dark Trails Saga Book 1))
“
In my philosophy, I think churches should not argue and be greedy with money. I think different churches like the synagogues, mosques, and Christian/Catholic churches should focus on bringing peace in the world and not compete. I know in today's world, people are defending one religion to another and try to show off. Has God, Jesus, or the disciples mentioned about competition in the Bible? I don't think so. Because if we compete, we turn to selfish needs and be greedy. So whatever religion you're in, have faith in it as much as you can and help others. Because in every religion I know, you have to give back the poor and have peace in your mind.
”
”
Simi Sunny
“
And the horrible thing was: what if they were right? What if she lived her whole life and never really knew what love was? What if it was deeper than she ever imagined? What if she died without ever knowing what she missed? How would she know to even miss it? Love--deep, profound, soul-stirring love--happened on this planet, in this life. And she missed it.
On the other hand, her mother had a point: babies were awful. They were selfish, greedy, expensive and ultimately resentful of what they later would decide you had withheld from them. You were, in effect, creating someone uniquely fine-tuned to discern your slightest faults and broadcast them from the highest point.
”
”
Jennifer Vandever (American Tango)
“
He had thought himself, so long as nobody knew, the most disinterested person in the world, carrying his concentrated burden, his perpetual suspense, ever so quietly, holding his tongue about it, giving others no glimpse of it nor of its effect upon his life, asking of them no allowance and only making on his side all those that were asked. He hadn't disturbed people with the queerness of their having to know a haunted man, though he had had moments of rather special temptation on hearing them say they were forsooth "unsettled." If they were as unsettled as he was—he who had never been settled for an hour in his life—they would know what it meant. Yet it wasn't, all the same, for him to make them, and he listened to them civilly enough. This was why he had such good—though possibly such rather colourless—manners; this was why, above all, he could regard himself, in a greedy world, as decently—as in fact perhaps even a little sublimely—unselfish. Our point is accordingly that he valued this character quite sufficiently to measure his present danger of letting it lapse, against which he promised himself to be much on his guard. He was quite ready, none the less, to be selfish just a little, since surely no more charming occasion for it had come to him. "Just a little," in a word, was just as much as Miss Bartram, taking one day with another, would let him. He never would be in the least coercive, and would keep well before him the lines on which consideration for her—the very highest—ought to proceed. He would thoroughly establish the heads under which her affairs, her requirements, her peculiarities—he went so far as to give them the latitude of that name—would come into their intercourse. All this naturally was a sign of how much he took the intercourse itself for granted. There was nothing more to be done about that. It simply existed; had sprung into being with her first penetrating question to him in the autumn light there at Weatherend. The real form it should have taken on the basis that stood out large was the form of their marrying. But the devil in this was that the very basis itself put marrying out of the question. His conviction, his apprehension, his obsession, in short, wasn't a privilege he could invite a woman to share; and that consequence of it was precisely what was the matter with him. Something or other lay in wait for him, amid the twists and the turns of the months and the years, like a crouching Beast in the Jungle. It signified little whether the crouching Beast were destined to slay him or to be slain. The definite point was the inevitable spring of the creature; and the definite lesson from that was that a man of feeling didn't cause himself to be accompanied by a lady on a tiger-hunt. Such was the image under which he had ended by figuring his life.
”
”
Henry James (The Beast in the Jungle)
“
The capitalist-consumerist ethic is revolutionary in another respect. Most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. They were promised paradise, but only if they cultivated compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger, and restrained their selfish interests. This was too tough for most. In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist-consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money, and that the masses give free rein to their cravings and passions – and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind)
“
Charis watches the chickens eat. They fill her with joy, a joy that has no rational source, because she knows—she has seen, also she remembers—how greedy chickens are, how selfish and unfeeling, how cruel they are to one another, how they gang up: at least two of them have naked scalps, from being picked on. Nor are they placid vegetarians: you can start a riot among them just by tossing them a few hot-dog ends or scraps of bacon. As for the rooster, with his eye of an insane prophet and his fanatic’s air of outrage and his comb and wattles flaunted like genitals, he’s an overbearing autocrat, and attacks her rubber boots when he thinks she’s not looking. Charis doesn’t care; she excuses the chickens everything.
”
”
Margaret Atwood (The Robber Bride)
“
THE HARLOT OF SELF The flesh loves Self. Self with the capital “S” is the term I use throughout this book to refer to that the self-centered, self-indulging, self-absorbed, self-willed, self-serving nature of fallen flesh. The flesh nature of Self turns in on itself. It is selfish, prideful, arrogant, haughty, vain, narcissistic, manipulative, controlling, dominating, impatient, stubborn, insensitive, resentful, angry, unteachable, rebellious, fearful, anxious, complaining, disagreeable, judgmental, negative, critical, cynical, indifferent, greedy, lustful, sensual, envious, covetous, jealous, fault-finding, dishonest, and deceitful. It is deceived and suffers from delusions of grandeur. It always asks, “What’s in it for me?
”
”
Charles Elliott Newbold Jr. (The Harlot Church System)
“
Suppose it was even as you think,” he went on, even more gently. “Suppose that all you say was a fact, and that our Elders were but greedy tyrants, ourselves abandoned here by their selfish will and set to fulfill a false and prideful purpose. No.” Jamethon’s voice rose. “Let me attest as if it were only for myself. Suppose that you could give me proof that all our Elders lied, that our very Covenant was false. Suppose that you could prove to me”—his face lifted to mine and his voice drove at me—“that all was perversion and falsehood, and nowhere among the Chosen, not even in the house of my father, was there faith or hope! If you could prove to me that no miracle could save me, that no soul stood with me, and that opposed were all the legions of the universe, still I, I alone, Mr. Olyn, would go forward as I have been commanded, to the end of the universe, to the culmination of eternity. For without my faith I am but common earth. But with my faith, there is no power can stay me!
”
”
Gordon R. Dickson (Soldier, Ask Not (Childe Cycle, #3))
“
I am one of those whom God marked on the forehead. Like Cain, I am marked and blemished. If you come to me, Mary, the world will abhor you, will persecute you, will call you unclean. Our love may be faithful even unto death and beyond — yet the world will call it unclean. We may harm no living creature by our love; we may grow more perfect in understanding and in charity because of our loving; but all this will not save you from the scourge of a world that will turn away its eyes from your noblest actions, finding only corruption and vileness in you. You will see men and women defiling each other, laying the burden of their sins upon their children. You will see unfaithfulness, lies and deceit among those whom the world views with approbation. You will find that many have grown hard of heart, have grown greedy, selfish, cruel and lustful; and then you will turn to me and will say: “You and I are more worthy of respect than these people. Why does the world persecute us, Stephen?” And I shall answer: “Because in this world there is only toleration for the so-called normal.” And when you come to me for protection, I shall say: “I cannot protect you, Mary, the world has deprived me of my right to protect; I am utterly helpless, I can only love you.
”
”
Radclyffe Hall (The Well of Loneliness)
“
To start the process of healing and recovery from addiction, the first thing we must do is accept how our addictions cause suffering in us and in the ones we love. We begin by understanding that addiction always creates suffering. Suffering is greed, hatred, and delusion. For the addict it may manifest as: Suffering is the stress created by craving for more. Suffering is never having enough to feel satisfied. Suffering is stealing to support your addiction. Suffering is lying to hide your addiction. Suffering is feeling ashamed of one’s actions. Suffering is feeling unworthy. Suffering is living in fear of the consequences of one’s actions. Suffering is the feelings of anger and resentment. Suffering is hurting other people. Suffering is hurting yourself. Suffering is the feeling of being isolated and alone. Suffering is the feeling of hatred toward oneself or others. Suffering is jealousy and envy. Suffering is feeling less than, inferior, or beneath others. Suffering is feeling superior, better than, or above others. Suffering is greedy, needy, and selfish. Suffering is the thought that I cannot be happy until I get. . . . Suffering is the anguish and misery of being addicted. All these feelings are unnecessary suffering caused by an imbalance between our instinctual drive for happiness and our instinctual need for survival. It is also very important to remember that the end of suffering does not mean the end of pain or difficulties, just the end of creating unnecessary suffering in our lives.
”
”
Noah Levine (Refuge Recovery: A Buddhist Path to Recovering from Addiction)
“
We began the show by asking: Who did more for the world, Michael Milken or Mother Teresa?
This seems like a no-brainer. Milken is the greedy junk-bond king. One year, his firm paid him $550 million. Then he went to jail for breaking securities laws. Mother Teresa is the nun who spent her lifetime helping the poor and died without a penny. Her good deeds live on even after her death; several thousand sisters now continue the charities she began. At first glance, of course Mother Teresa did more for the world.
But it's not so simple. Milken's selfish pursuit of profit helped a lot of people, too. Think about it: By pioneering a new way for companies to raise money, Milken created millions of jobs. The ignorant media sneered at 'junk bonds', but Milken's innovative use of them meant exciting new ideas flourished.
We now make calls on a national cellular network established by a company called McCaw Cellular, which Milken financed. And our calls are cheaper because Milken's junk bonds financed MCI. CEO Bill McGowan simply couldn't get the money anywhere else. Without Milken, MCI wouldn't have grown from 11 to 50,000 employees. CNN's 24-hour news and Ted Turner's other left-wing ventures were made possible by Milken's 'junk'.
The world's biggest toy company, Mattel, the cosmetics company Revlon, and the supermarket giant Safeway were among many rescued from bankruptcy by Milken's junk bonds. He financed more than 3,000 companies, including what are now Barnes & Noble, AOL Time Warner, Comcast, Mellon Bank, Occidental Petroleum, Jeep Eagle, Calvin Klein, Hasbro, Days Inn, 7-Eleven, and Computer Associates. Millions of people have productive employment today because of Michael Milken. (Millions of jobs is hard to believe, and when 'Greed' aired, I just said he created thousands of jobs; but later I met Milken, and he was annoyed with me because he claimed he'd created millions of jobs. I asked him to document that, to name the companies and the jobs, and he did.)
”
”
John Stossel (Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media...)
“
THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHOTEP
Part III
Report your commission without faltering,
Give your advice in your master’s council.
If he is fluent in his speech,
It will not be hard for the envoy to report,
Nor will he be answered, "Who is he to know it ?”
As to the master, his affairs will fail
If he plans to punish him for it.
He should be silent upon (hearing): "I have told.”
If you are a man who leads.
Whose authority reaches wide,
You should do outstanding things,
Remember the day that comes after.
No strife will occur in the midst of honors,
But where the crocodile enters hatred arises.
If you are a man who leads.
Listen calmly to the speech of one who pleads;
Don’t stop him from purging his body
Of that which he planned to tell.
A man in distress wants to pour out his heart
More than that his case be won.
About him who stops a plea
One says: “Why does he reject it ?”
Not all one pleads for can be granted,
But a good hearing soothes the heart.
If you want friendship to endure
In the house you enter
As master, brother, or friend,
In whatever place you enter,
Beware of approaching the women!
Unhappy is the place where it is done.
Unwelcome is he who intrudes on them.
A thousand men are turned away from their good:
A short moment like a dream,
Then death comes for having known them.
Poor advice is “shoot the opponent,”
When one goes to do it the heart rejects it.
He who fails through lust of them,
No affair of his can prosper.
If you want a perfect conduct,
To be free from every evil,
Guard against the vice of greed:
A grievous sickness without cure,
There is no treatment for it.
It embroils fathers, mothers,
And the brothers of the mother,
It parts wife from husband;
It is a compound of all evils,
A bundle of all hateful things.
That man endures whose rule is rightness,
Who walks a straight line;
He will make a will by it,
The greedy has no tomb.
Do not be greedy in the division.
Do not covet more than your share;
Do not be greedy toward your kin.
The mild has a greater claim than the harsh.
Poor is he who shuns his kin,
He is deprived of 'interchange'
Even a little of what is craved
Turns a quarreler into an amiable man.
When you prosper and found your house,
And love your wife with ardor,
Fill her belly, clothe her back,
Ointment soothes her body.
Gladden her heart as long as you live,
She is a fertile held for her lord.
Do not contend with her in court,
Keep her from power, restrain her —
Her eye is her storm when she gazes —
Thus will you make her stay in your house.
Sustain your friends with what you have,
You have it by the grace of god;
Of him who fails to sustain his friends
One says, “a selfish ka".
One plans the morrow but knows not what will be,
The ( right) ka is the ka by which one is sustained.
If praiseworthy deeds are done,
Friends will say, “welcome!”
One does not bring supplies to town,
One brings friends when there is need.
Do not repeat calumny.
Nor should you listen to it,
It is the spouting of the hot-bellied.
Report a thing observed, not heard,
If it is negligible, don’t say anything.
He who is before you recognizes worth.
lf a seizure is ordered and carried out,
Hatred will arise against him who seizes;
Calumny is like a dream against which one covers the face.
If you are a man of worth,
Who sits in his master’s council.
Concentrate on excellence,
Your silence is better than chatter.
Speak when you know you have a solution,
It is the skilled who should speak in council;
Speaking is harder than all other work.
He who understands it makes it serve.
”
”
Miriam Lichtheim (Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms)
“
You really need to be careful In taking advice, being influenced, or following and supporting someone on Social Media.
Choose to double-check, verify, and apply logic and reasonable thinking in everything.
It is because you don’t know the state of mind, intentions, situation, or conditions of the person posting.
They might be posting from prison, psychiatric hospital or dark place.
They might be bots, egocentric, pessimists, greedy, dishonest, manipulative, narcissistic, vindictive, sarcastic, toxic, selfish, hostile, pedophiles, scammers, murderers, insane, minors, catfish or psychopaths.
They might have bipolar disorder. Because they have a large number of followers or they are too vocal it doesn’t mean you should listen and take everything they say.
”
”
De philosopher DJ Kyos
“
Amantes Assemble Sonnet 63
Love is a lamp,
That the sane cannot light.
Peace is poetry,
That the sober cannot write.
Growth is green,
That the greedy cannot plant.
Insight is a state,
That the pompous cannot land.
Society is a cup of tea,
That the selfish cannot make.
World is a responsibility,
That the animals cannot take.
However, it's okay if the world feels too heavy.
Start by taking your neighborhood's responsibility.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans)
“
The fool says that consequences are a myth, so his indulgence knows no end. Yet, the greater fool is the one who eventually realizes that the consequences are not a myth at all. Rather, they choose to believe that they are a product of not having indulged enough.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
—all that damned stupid greedy selfishness that’s starting all over again. I tell you, the minute the real danger passed, and people felt safe again, out it came. Nothing’s happened to them inside. They haven’t changed. They haven’t learnt anything—except how to make bigger and better bombs and hate like hell.
”
”
J.B. Priestley (Three Men in New Suits)
“
These people will settle into their new lives and the pain and loss they have suffered will fade; after that they will become like any other society: greedy, selfish, wanting more and questioning those in charge.
”
”
R.R. Haywood (The Undead. The First Seven Days (The Undead #1-7 ))
“
Ours is a time like the flood, like the exile, when the certitudes abandon us, the old reliabilities have become unsure, and “things fall apart.” The falling part is happening for conservatives, and it is happening for liberals. It is happening all around us, and to all of us.
In such a context of enormous fearfulness, our propensity is to enormous destructiveness. Grow more strident, more fearful, more anxious, more greedy for our own way, more despairing, and consequently, more brutal. That propensity to destructiveness is all around us. On many days we succumb to its power; we succumb to the need to look only after ourselves and our kind, only selfishly, only ideologically, only “realistically.
”
”
Walter Brueggemann
“
The Coming Out
Dawn has ushered in
Yet another era
Whilst the sun sets on the other
Bidding it farewell
Rotating like the globe
Each era getting its time to shine
Like a star as it should
Fulfilling its destiny before the sun sets
Ushering out yet another era
Shuttered for too long
Shunned
Dismissed
Scattered underground among thorns
Bristles,debris and twigs
Among inhabitable bats, rats and stones
Stalactites as chandeliers
Stalagmites as cedar floors
Mustaches touching their feet
Beards touching the ground
Disheveled unshaven hairs covered their entire bodies
The people looked around
They noticed their sharp resemblance
To the animals living above them
Surely the people thought...
They must have evolved from these creatures living above them
And as time passes they outgrew their long tails
“Oh God!” Pleaded the people
“Did You not make room for us too?”
God heard the pleas of the people and pitied them
And God showed the people mercy
Grateful were the people
Pale from the dark shelter of the caves and unshaven hairs
They were guided to a place where they could share in the land
The people thanked God for taking them to green pastures
They set up systems
On the money the people put God first and boldly proclaimed
“In Almighty God We Trust"
The people established a Holiday specifically to thank God for remembering them
God prospered the people He brought out from the underground caves
As time passes the people became selfish, greedy and violent
The underground people forgot how God took them out of the dark caves
The people from below forgot God's mercy
Because the people lived among the stony caves
They knew not how to make the land productive
The people sought expertise exploitively
The people concocted and instituted bitter irrational laws
To hold the experts as hostages against their will
Experts brought great success
The experts grew crops that were traded profitably
Experts were unpaid
Even with the huge booming success of the crops they grew
The people that came out from below the caves
Unrelentingly wants everything above the caves
As the era rotates
From one era to the next
Like each era is destined to be
Until the era's sun sets
”
”
Maisie Aletha Smikle
“
Any narrative that we write is a narrative that we will eventually need to be saved from, with the exception of this one.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
We scramble or race to “get what’s ours.” We often grow selfish, greedy, petty, fearful, or controlling, or sometimes confused, conflicted, or guilty. We see ourselves as winners or losers, powerful or helpless, and we let those labels deeply define us in ways that are inaccurate, as if financial wealth and control indicate innate superiority, and lack of them suggests a lack of worth or basic human potential.
”
”
Lynne Twist (The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life)
“
It is the greedy who shall keep the last loaf of bread for themselves.
”
”
Anthony T. Hincks
“
Sometimes she thought she would have been better off procreating at twenty-two than thirty-two. Back then, she had thought she wanted four or five kids someday. She was still young and dumb enough to think it possible. Maybe that’s how mothers like Anne Marie were made — they plunged headlong into the whole endeavor before they knew any better. They weren’t selfish or greedy with their time because as adults they had never spent several Saturdays in a row lying in bed watching Meg Ryan movies on cable. They had never passed an entire weekend indoors, just because they felt like it.
”
”
J. Courtney Sullivan (Maine)
“
The English major looked me directly in the eyes. "Stop being so greedy," she said, "and so selfish. Realize that there is more to the world than your big houses and fancy stores. People are starving and you worry about oil for your cars. Babies are dying of thirst and you search the fashion magazines for the latest styles. Nations like ours are drowning in poverty, but your people don't even hear our cries for help. You shut your ears to the voices of those who try to tell you these things. You label them radicals or Communists. You must open your hearts to the poor and downtrodden, instead of driving them further into poverty and servitude. There's not much time left. If you don't change, you're doomed."
Several days later the popular Bandung politician, whose puppet stood up to Nixon and was impaled by Bucket Man, was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver.
”
”
John Perkins (The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man)
“
To give our lives over to the pursuit of making our greed look like it’s something other than greed so that we can feel good about not being good is to find ourselves in the pursuit of one of the greediest things imaginable.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
People say I’m selfish, other says I’m too greedy, but I tell them all that I am myself!
”
”
Mayestron
“
The fairest babe, that has entered life this year and become the sunbeam of a family, is not, as its mother perhaps fondly calls it, a little ‘angel’, or a little ‘innocent’, but a little ‘sinner’. Alas! As it lies smiling and crowing in its cradle, that little creature carries in its heart the seeds of every kind of wickedness! Only watch it carefully, as it grows in stature and its mind develops, and you will soon detect in it an incessant tendency to that which is bad, and a backwardness to that which is good. You will see in it the buds and germs of deceit, evil temper, selfishness, self-will, obstinacy, greediness, envy, jealousy, passion, which, if indulged and let alone, will shoot up with painful rapidity.
”
”
J.C. Ryle (Holiness)
“
Brains are notoriously selfish organs. They give themselves priority access to everything they require—from blood-flow to warmth, nutrients and oxygen. During times of bodily stress, our brains will shut down one organ after another, even to the point of damaging them—before depriving themselves. Brains are also greedy. They make up just 2 per cent of our body weight, yet take 20 per cent of the energy we use.
”
”
Tim Flannery (Here On Earth: An Argument For Hope)
“
Most folks are good, but even the good can be greedy and selfish and scheming. Our motives ain't always virtuous, 'specially at first, but they can become so, if'n you give 'em time to change and grow.
”
”
Erin Bowman (Retribution Rails (Vengeance Road, #2))
“
To lead for glory or gain is to neither lead nor follow. Rather, it is to destroy.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Greed is everything that it says it’s not.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
the problem is, no one can fix human nature. We’re greedy, selfish, stupid, so, so fucking stupid, and shortsighted by nature. And that’s what’s going to kill us all. Hopefully.
”
”
Erica Ferencik (Girl in Ice)
“
Put yourself first and in no time you will be dead last.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Selfishness isn’t looking to your own interest, but doing so at the expense or neglect of others.
”
”
J.S. Felts (Ageless Wisdom: A Treasury of Quotes to Motivate & Inspire)
“
GOOD People are GOOD People. Selfish, Greedy, Self-Centered, and Evil People will always be the same. Money has nothing to do with it.
”
”
Mike Butler (Landlording on AutoPilot: A Simple, No-Brainer System for Higher Profits, Less Work and More Fun (Do It All from Your Smartphone or Tablet!))
“
Second, “Capitalism” is a word popularized by Karl Marx; it implies that the selfish accumulation and enjoyment of capital is the sole purpose of our present society, soon to be overthrown by the proletariat. “Capitalism” is represented as a complete system, moral, intellectual, political, and economic: an ideology has been devised by the greedy capitalists to serve as a false front for this enslaving of the workers of the world. Such is the Marxist argument; and Novak appears to be fulfilling Marx's prophecies by cobbling up just such an ideology.
”
”
Russell Kirk (The Politics of Prudence)
“
All your life, you have heard yourself denounced, not for your faults, but for your greatest virtues. You have been hated, not for your mistakes, but for your achievements. You have been scorned for all those qualities of character which are your highest pride. You have been called selfish for the courage of acting on your own judgment and bearing sole responsibility for your own life. You have been called arrogant for your independent mind. You have been called cruel for your unyielding integrity. You have been called anti-social for the vision that made you venture upon undiscovered roads. You have been called ruthless for the strength and self-discipline of your drive to your purpose. You have been called greedy for the magnificence of your power to create wealth. You, who’ve expended an inconceivable flow of energy, have been called a parasite. You, who’ve created abundance where there had been nothing but wastelands and helpless, starving men before you, have been called a robber. You, who’ve kept them all alive, have been called an exploiter. You, the purest and most moral man among them, have been sneered at as a ‘vulgar materialist.
”
”
Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged)
“
Humans can be literally poisoned by false ideas and false teachings. Many people have a just horror at the thought of putting poison into tea or coffee, but seem unable to realize that, when they teach false ideas and false doctrines, they are poisoning the time-binding capacity of their fellow men and women. One has to stop and think! There is nothing mystical about the fact that ideas and words are energies which powerfully affect the physico-chemical base of our time-binding activities. Humans are thus made untrue to “human nature.” Hypnotism is a known fact. It has been proved that a man can be so hypnotized that in a certain time which has been suggested to him, he will murder or commit arson or theft; that, under hypnotic influence, the personal morale of the individual has only a small influence upon his conduct; the subject obeys the hypnotic suggestions, no matter how immoral they are. The conception of man as a mixture of animal and supernatural has for ages kept human beings under the deadly spell of the suggestion that, animal selfishness and animal greediness are their essential character, and the spell has operated to suppress their real human nature and to prevent it from expressing itself naturally and freely.
”
”
Alfred Korzybski (Manhood of Humanity)
“
What is achieved in blaming a man for being selfish and greedy if he acts under the influence of a social environment and education which teach him that he is an animal and that selfishness and greediness are of the essence of his nature?
”
”
Alfred Korzybski (Manhood of Humanity)
“
MONEY DOESN’T CHANGE MEN, IT MERELY UNMASKS THEM. IF A MAN IS NATURALLY SELFISH OR ARROGANT OR GREEDY, THE MONEY BRINGS THAT OUT, THAT IS ALL.”—HENRY FORD
”
”
John C. Maxwell (Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs To Know (101 Series))
“
Doing nothing but seeking pleasure is an attitude that will bankrupt our souls long before we ever seek out the pleasures that we thought would fill them.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Although it would convince us to believe otherwise, greed will always view us as an acceptable causality of whatever it is that greed desires.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Greed exhausts itself by filling every nook and cranny with all of the things that are nothing, which leaves no room for the things that are everything.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Human beings were very selfish and greedy. Once they were aware they couldn’t attain something in the future, their hope stopped there. However, since Dia had gotten something in her hands, she would like to take good care of it so that it wouldn’t be chipped or broken.
”
”
Sakurase Ayaka (桜瀬彩香) (長い夜の国と最後の舞踏会 1 ~ひとりぼっちの公爵令嬢と真夜中の精霊~ (オーバーラップノベルスf))
“
labour? The elite cared not that education standards were falling in the state sector, because by and large they had no connection with the state sector. For the most part they had private health insurance too. And in a sense the economic shibboleths of the 1980s paid for these people to live the less dirigiste social lives made possible by the new freedoms of divorce and separation. The poor, as we have seen, still cannot afford to divorce. When they do, the misery – economic and social – is boundless. I do not want to kill
”
”
Rod Liddle (Selfish Whining Monkeys: How we Ended Up Greedy, Narcissistic and Unhappy)
“
Beneath the compulsion to over-give is the wound of undervaluing our own worth.
When religion makes money the root of all evil, those of us who are spiritually inclined feel that it is greedy, selfish, or sinful to be prosperous. We may even feel like it is more spiritual or noble to shun material wealth completely.
But as physical safety and stability are root chakra concerns (the first energy center at the base of your spine), when you don’t feel financially secure, you can’t cultivate the higher chakra gifts of creativity, joy, service, and self-actualization.
Any “starving artist” or ascetic healer will tell you that worrying about their basic needs is far from conducive to their ability to work joyfully and effectively.
Ironically, the world’s religious organizations are themselves profoundly wealthy. One only needs to look at their monuments to see that massive amounts of money are required to construct their institutions. The ordained leaders are either paid salaries or have their material needs completely met so that they can live lives of service. Their ability to be charitable also depends on their ability to amass funding. And yet, even while they require money to thrive, they often condemn their followers from desiring and acquiring it.
Since Mother Earth as a Goddess represents living abundantly in Her physical paradise now, (rather than waiting to live in the spiritual paradise in the afterlife), condemning money is yet another way of minimizing and shaming all that is earthly and feminine.
But Pachamama is here to remind you that it is rightful and holy for you to be wealthy, beloved, because the Divine itself is infinite creativity, expansion, and abundance.
There is no shame in claiming your Divine inheritance, and there is no glory in denying yourself the Divine’s loving support in all ways—material and spiritual.
”
”
Syma Kharal (Goddess Reclaimed: 13 Initiations to Unleash Your Sacred Feminine Power)
“
In a world full of wolves devouring on each other's carcasses, be an elephant with incomparable courage and revolutionary gentleness.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Earthquakin' Egalitarian: I Die Everyday So Your Children Can Live)
“
Greed is self-preservation in action - it is selfishness in action. So to treat greed, we must treat selfishness.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Girl Over God: The Novel)
“
India neither respects UN Security Council resolutions nor has the intention to build peace in the region. Indian Intelligence Agencies have always tried for conspiracy against Pakistan and caused economic damage with false propaganda and collaboration of international media, writers, scholars, and such ones, who became of them a chess propaganda army everywhere.
The fools, traitors, and idiots having no brain became delicious chocolate for the Indian Intelligence. It is not an illusion or delusion, or table made, story; it is a real and significant truth ever since, as they tried to buy me as well; I am authentic evidence of it.
Sold figures harp their voice, motives, and advocacy for them, with the crocodile tears, on the fears of deaths. While such ones never realize the killing of innocent children, elderly and mothers, in Kashmir.
When selfishness and greediness dominate upon one, who became sold is unworthy, whether having academic or dynasty background.
The peace lies in Indian ruling minds, the biggest democracy in the world if that, realize and accomplish the regulations of the Security Council; indeed, peace shall prevail.
”
”
Ehsan Sehgal
“
Money is just simply a tool that exaggerates who you are. If you were already greedy and selfish, you're just going to get even more greedy and selfish with more wealth. On the flip side, if you are already generous and kind, you're just going to get even more generous and kind with it. It is simply a tool that lets you do more–whatever the more is.
”
”
Zoë Cayetano (Unlearn Dogma: Be Bold and Trail Blaze Your Path to Wealth, Health and Wisdom)
“
If you are not selfish and greedy, you picked up riches along the street.
”
”
Michael Bassey Johnson (Classic Quotations From The Otherworlds)
“
The sight of other people's prosperity seems to kill their appreciation and the enjoyment of their possessions. To be happy, we must approve of ourselves; and there is something within us which always condemns the selfish act, as it does the sinful act. I have never known a greedy, grasping, selfish person to be happy. Where these propensities dominate in the nature, it is impossible for the things which create love to live. These rank, vulgar weeds kill the more tender plants and flowers which radiate sweetness and beauty, contentment and happiness.
”
”
Orison Swett Marden (The Joys of Living)
“
The communists may not have done very well in the end, but I can't help thinking of capitalism as merely the go-to religion of the greedy and selfish.
”
”
Pansy Schneider-Horst
“
This is an overwhelming truth. People will judge God by us, His earthly representatives, especially those of us in the ministry. If we are holy, righteous, and compassionate, then our lives give good testimony of our God. But if we who bear His name before the world are unclean, lazy, greedy, immature, selfish, and carnal, we bring reproach to the Lord. So He must judge us, often publicly. Then everyone will know that He is holy and that He will not tolerate evil—especially among those who approach Him, those with whom He is intimate.
”
”
Michael L. Brown (Whatever Happened to the Power of God? & It's Time to Rock the Boat)
“
This flew in the face of economic theory. The offering party was saying, “I’ll keep seventy dollars and give you thirty.” And the other party was saying, “No. Screw you. I’m rejecting this deal, even though I’ll have to give up my thirty.” Why? Because the person rejecting the offer had a visceral feeling that the split being offered wasn’t fair. That the person dividing it was being selfish and greedy, and they wanted to punish him. They were punishing themselves as well, but they were willing.
”
”
Douglas E. Richards (Quantum Lens)
“
If I were to sit down and count them, how many of my prayers were tainted by the seduction of greed? None, simply because nothing of that sort is a prayer.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
You want to know what gets on my nerves? When people say 'you can't be a Christian because you're LGBT+, or you used to be a Muslim/Hindu/atheist/pretty much anything else really'. The reason people say those things is because we believe doing so is sinning, but haven't we all sinned? Aren't we all in the same boat, at the mercy of the storm raging outside? If so, why keep to ourselves in what we think is the safest corner, but the whole boat sinks nonetheless? Every sin, whether it's stealing a cookie from the cookie jar to murdering and robbing an innocent child is sin. Even if you have never done any wrong, except did one thing, isn't your soul still poisoned, still doomed to being a sinner? Why must we separate ourself because we believe we are 'righteous', when in doing so we simply dirty ourselves in sinful dust even more so, yet continue to believe ourselves better then anyone else? If you don't think you are worthy, or can possibly be righteous, well, I'm afraid your not on track. The only reason we are even not-dead-yet is because a perfect soul died after never sinning, Jesus payed the price we so selfishly went into debt for because we wanted temporary satisfaction and worthless paper called money. If we have all been called to be clean, why must we refuse this and say others are dirty, when if that's true we are dirty as well ourselves? We sink the boat we are on to see others drown, yet in the process we drown ourselves. We have been selfish, lazy, prideful, and sinful, every one of is, and yet are so blind we cannot even see the great light that calls us to be clean and perfect. There is no such thing as too far gone, so why do we say others are too far gone yet set the bar lower for ourselves? Are we more perfect, more righteous, more forgiven then people who don't know God as well as we do? Surely not! If we know God, instead of keeping him to ourselves we are quite clearly instructed to give freely in the Bible, and yet we refuse to do so for the sake of our sinful pride. Why do we not reach down, and get our knees dirty to help the poor? What is stopping us from going that extra mile, from giving more then you have, from reaching out with the great news of the savior? We are too prideful, we don't want our silken robes to get muddy in someone else's sin even when they're already disgusting in ours. We tell ourselves we're are too tired to walk the extra mile, yet powerful enough to strike down the needy and ones in poverty. We are too greedy, we would rather keep the Savior to ourselves then give it, even though in giving you get even more. What right do we have to choose who should come with us into heaven? What heavenly authority gave us the power to say 'you sin, you cannot come to heaven', even though we sinners think we can when there is no difference between us? Any one can truly believe, there is no 'special requirement' to be a Christian other then to know God exists (well, duh you didn't need to tell us that) and to know you are a sinner and to try to not sin, even though we all fail miserably at that, and to love God with all your heart and soul and mind, and to love your neighbor as much as God loves them. (No, autocorrect is not a human, I hate it too). There is no human on earth who is perfect, if you believe yourself to be so you are even more wrong then before. If there is anyone reading this, who is suicidal or LGBT+ and have been bullied or just don't know, trust me, there is nothing, NOTHING preventing you from believing except for your own will. I don't know if this is a quote or a rant ;;
”
”
Unicornfarts2000
“
If you don’t get help, everything you have, everything you love, is going to go away. Addiction takes and takes and keeps on taking. It’s the most greedy and selfish thing in the entire world.
”
”
Jay Crownover (Recovered)
“
In reality, a gift is nothing more than the wrappings within which I have placed myself.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
As utterly irrational as it might seem, the greed within me has the most limited vision I can possibly imagine as it has eyes only for the few things it doesn’t have, and it is completely blind to all the many remarkable things that it does.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Love in the service of self is greed in disguise.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
greediness and selfishness dissolves the spiritual values as chemical dissolves the salt
”
”
laila shah
“
If I live life as some barter system, I will in fact never have given anything away except the opportunity to really live.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
I will be the first to confess that I have too often let my desires run as a spoiled child in the gluttonous pursuit of some rogue agenda that I have skillfully justified as enhancing the greater good, when in fact it enhances nothing more than my greater good. And when I force myself away from the pithy arguments and the reeking pabulum that I have cleverly crafted to justify these actions, I find myself standing toe-to-toe with the very monster that I have so ardently advocated for. And more times than I can tell you, I find myself standing in this place shamed beyond the scope of words to express. And until I submit the barking agenda of my ‘good’ to the ‘greatness’ of God’s character, I will die at the hands of this most horrific cycle.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Here is the tragedy of the thug. From all we know of his treatment of his own people, military and civilian, he is the perfect picture of the tyrant. His policy is not steady, but based on urgently felt desires of the moment. He has attacked on all sides. He has opportunistically killed communists. He has attacked Western interests. He has persecuted Kurds and Shiites, he has invaded Iran and Kuwait. It is all according to his momentary hopes and fears. There is no solid thing, no guiding principle other than tyrannical selfishness underlying his state. It is all false and rotten. And now he is surrounded and isolated. He is being used by Russia and China and yet, he is not really supported by them. As for his military prowess, he cannot hope to win any future war. In Zhuge Liang and Liu Ji's commentaries on Sun Tzu, eight kinds of decadence are listed for generals. "First is to be insatiably greedy." Look at Saddam's personal wealth, his many palaces, to see how closely he fits this description. "Second is to be jealous and envious of the wise and able." In Saddam's many purges the wise and able fell, leaving incompetent lackeys to run the army. "Third is to believe slanderers and make friends with the treacherous." His friendship treaty with Moscow and his belief in a Western conspiracy against the Arab world has landed him in a fatal fix. "Fourth is to assess others without assessing oneself." For Saddam, this is a psychological imperative. "Fifth is to be hesitant and indecisive." And what of his decisive recklessness? "Sixth is to be heavily addicted to wine and sex." Consider the behavior of Saddam's eldest son, Uday, who is known for rape as well as drunkenness. "Seventh is to be a malicious liar with a cowardly heart." Here we do not say that Saddam has a cowardly heart, but he lies all the same. "Eighth is to talk wildly, without courtesy." This was Saddam's trademark from the first.
”
”
J.R. Nyquist
“
I find it amusing that progressives go on about “greed” and “selfishness” when they are the greediest, most selfish people of all. From the progressive viewpoint, Gates is a greedy, selfish guy because he has more than $50 billion and what can a man possibly want with that much money? (I’m reminded here of Obama’s 2010 comment, made in the context of the financial reform debate, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”)12 The progressive solution is to force Gates to part with some, or most, of that money so that they can deploy it as they see fit. This is the progressive equivalent of Amartya Sen’s “who gets the flute.
”
”
Dinesh D'Souza (Stealing America: What My Experience with Criminal Gangs Taught Me about Obama, Hillary, and the Democratic Party)
“
Yet Obama is able to get away with it because, for years prior to the theft, he has been convincing people that he is the great apostle of social justice. I am supposed to be “greedy” and “selfish” for possessing a sandwich and he is wonderfully compassionate for taking half my sandwich and giving it to someone else. Notice that, through this process, the recipient of the sandwich is grateful not to me but to him. He becomes the provider even though it is my sandwich that he is sharing.
”
”
Dinesh D'Souza (Stealing America: What My Experience with Criminal Gangs Taught Me about Obama, Hillary, and the Democratic Party)
“
Progressives, however, have always had their eye on those crops and that deer. Through an elaborate flimflam—“that greedy selfish farmer who wants to keep the food he planted and harvested,” “look how much meat those hunters have compared to those who didn’t go on the hunt”—the progressives seek to establish themselves as the moral arbiters in adjudicating an issue that needs no adjudication, namely, who has the right to the crops and the deer. The moment we enter into their pitch, we have unwittingly transferred ownership of the crops and the deer to the government, which is to say, to the progressives. This is the biggest theft of all, one that is especially diabolical because it marches behind a banner of justice.
”
”
Dinesh D'Souza (Stealing America: What My Experience with Criminal Gangs Taught Me about Obama, Hillary, and the Democratic Party)
“
Most people are selfish and greedy which always leads to financial booms followed by economic busts. It’s just the way it is.
”
”
Mark Arundel (Codename: Moneyman [File No. 1])
“
capitalism makes the selfish think their right and allows the greedy to steal at the expense of others.
”
”
Mark Arundel (Codename: Moneyman [File No. 1])
“
It’s about needing to feel loved and comforted but feeling unworthy of real love and comfort. It’s about hating having needs and desires. For some of us, needs make us feel greedy and selfish. For some of us, having needs means we can easily get hurt if those needs are not met. For some of us, we don’t believe we deserve to have our needs met. We try to convince ourselves that we don’t need anything by avoiding food, one of our greatest primal needs.
”
”
Emma McEvoy
“
Creation is about the spreading, the diffusion, the outward explosion of that love. This God is the very opposite of greedy, hungry, selfish emptiness; in his self-giving he naturally pours forth life and goodness. He is, then, the source of all that is good, and that means he is not the sort of God who would call people to himself away from happiness in good things. Goodness and ultimate happiness are to be found with him, not apart from him.
”
”
Michael Reeves (Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith)
“
If Pelagius had solved the problem of sin and human responsibility by arguing that humans are perfectly capable of doing whatever they want, Augustine solved it by saying that humans deliberately act against the good ideals that they don’t know and are selfish, greedy, lustful, stubborn, and proud. In his words, people are non posse non peccare, “not able not to sin,” because even the good things that we do are not out of love for God but for some lesser purpose.
”
”
Justin S. Holcomb (Know the Creeds and Councils (KNOW Series Book 1))
“
I refuse to sacrifice for fear of what I will lose. But to not sacrifice is to insure that I will lose.
”
”
Craig D Lounsbrough
“
If you allow yourself to make all the money you need to flourish and live out your desires, it does not mean you are, or will become, a greedy, selfish, Earth-ruining bastard.
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Jen Sincero (You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth)
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What social value have Democrats like Warren, Obama, Clinton or Biden created in exchange for the wealth they have obtained? Virtually none. Essentially, they have used their political name and office to enrich themselves. They—not entrepreneurs—are the greedy, selfish bastards. They are the ones playing the system and skirting the law. This is the progressive, socialist parasitic class, feeding off the wealth of society while reviling the free market system that produced that wealth. If anyone deserves to be horsewhipped, it’s these progressive and socialist Democrats. As for entrepreneurs, we need more of them. If the socialists are helping to destroy the country, entrepreneurs are helping to make America great again.
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Dinesh D'Souza (United States of Socialism: Who's Behind It. Why It's Evil. How to Stop It.)
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it is a shame that so many beautiful places have become immensely popular within the past 3-4 years...they are being plastered all over the internet making people want to go and see them, especially photographers...and its a further shame that so many photographers only want to take pictures, with the goal to share to their social media sites and get likes, sponsors, and money...ironically how before that, like just 4 years ago, you seldom saw many images of unknown places, and most people had no clue where these spots where...now these special places are becoming less unique as they get more and more coverage and exposure, becoming less and less mystical to the art-world...
it is also a further shame how many of these photographers only care about themselves and getting their picture at any cost, including the cost of damaging their natural surroundings with their ignorance...and my god, the stuff i have seen them do and leave behind in their wake is appalling...and more and more all the reason for why i will not disclose anymore the places where i go now that are unknown treasures which i have been discovering, so these new photo sites do not ever have to become overrun like so many other beautiful places have regrettably become, all due to inconsiderate and selfish people with their selfish cameras and cellphones, and selfish actions, those annoying people out there who are merely like pesky fleas to a very beautiful location, sucking the blood and life out of it slowly...
i feel partially to blame, as i used to always give people locations of my photo comps, so many of the places not many knew about and were rarely visited, let alone photographed...there were spots i photographed over 5 years ago, and now many of these sites are overrun with greed and stupidity, getting trashed, tagged, and overrun. i know i am not directly to blame, but i was part of the problem even though i was only trying to help out other courteous photographers, but in the process of doing just that, the door opened to the ugly people looking to use others and use places for their own greedy intentions...i would even give them the gps to within 5 feet of the spot if they asked me...i was always so open and as helpful as i could be...also gave out all my camera settings and told how i went about creating my impressions with my equipment and thoughts about the composition...
now look what has happened...i am not to blame, but i do carry much of the responsibility as word got out to these previously secluded locations...so now, i want no part of it anymore. and even-though now i often get called selfish and mean for not disclosing my locations, i must do what i feel is necessary to protect what i love and the places i love.
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Bodhi Smith (Bodhi Smith Impressionist Photography (#6))
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Man does tend to be selfish when in want,
but could still be caring if he does want.
Man tends to be caring when in plenty,
but could still be selfish if he’s greedy.
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Rodolfo Martin Vitangcol, The Pink Poetry
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Englishmen of Whiggish persuasion were convinced that, after decades and centuries of thought and travail, the British constitution had come to represent the best way to achieve that goal. Drawing heavily from Greek and Roman thinkers who had affirmed the need of mixed government in order to achieve balance and harmony among social classes, the English had achieved such a balance of social power among king, lords, and commons that a political balance of power would be counterpoised among these powerful estates. Social equilibrium in short would produce political equilibrium, which in turn would prevent the kind of immoderate government that might interfere in men’s liberties. This elaborate edifice was based on the theory that men, being naturally selfish, irrational, aggressive, greedy, and lustful, had to be not only protected in their liberty from government but protected from one another by government. The “Interest of Freedom,” Marchamont Nedham had written in the mid-1650s, “is a Virgin that everyone seeks to deflower.” Paine and his fellow radicals rejected this view of human nature and the Whiggish apparatus that went with it. Perhaps the people of the Old World, divided into unequal estates and corrupted by their rulers, were prone to depravity and unreason, they granted, but Americans were different. Farmers and mechanics and all others who wore “leathern aprons,” being more equal and fraternal and less grasping and competitive, were more reasonable and virtuous. Because of his faith in human nature and the perfectibility of man, as Eric Foner has said, “Paine could reject the need for governmental checks and balances.
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James MacGregor Burns (The American Experiment: The Vineyard of Liberty, The Workshop of Democracy, and The Crosswinds of Freedom)
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If the outcome of our years lived serves us, I would suggest that we haven’t lived.
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Craig D. Lounsbrough
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The Bible sees greed as a form of idolatry, because a greedy person worships things instead of God. Greed and envy have their roots in selfishness.
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Billy Graham (Billy graham in quotes)
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Coach, anything—let me say it again, anything—we pursue that causes a deterioration in the relationships God designed for us, like the relationship with him, or the relationship within our commitment of marriage, is a selfish, unhealthy, and, yes, greedy pursuit, even if that pursuit comes from within the church building.
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Todd G. Gongwer (Lead . . . for God's Sake!: A Parable for Finding the Heart of Leadership)
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The capitalist–consumerist ethic is revolutionary in another respect. Most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. They were promised paradise, but only if they cultivated compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger, and restrained their selfish interests. This was too tough for most. The history of ethics is a sad tale of wonderful ideals that nobody can live up to. Most Christians did not imitate Christ, most Buddhists failed to follow Buddha, and most Confucians would have caused Confucius a temper tantrum. In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist–consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money, and that the masses give free rein to their cravings and passions – and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do. How, though, do we know that we’ll really get paradise in return? We’ve seen it on television.
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Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind)
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Life its harder because of people who are holding keys to lift others up are being greedy and selfish. They deny other people opportunities that have nothing to do with them.
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De philosopher DJ Kyos (The Theory of 46 Be's)
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A compass calibrated by my greed is a rather shrewd way to legitimize my agenda. However, true north on a compass such as this is a straight line to the edge of a really big cliff.
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Craig D. Lounsbrough
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DOOR MONEY” To focus on door money means one is paying so much attention to the amount of money they are making at the door they do not consider there is much more profit to be made inside a venue.
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Carlos Wallace (The Other 99 T.Y.M.E.S: Train Your Mind to Enjoy Serenity)
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They’ve gone, love. Stay a moment more. There’s nothing to be gained by haste at this point, and we need to sort this out before we face your family.” Love? Now he called her love? “Let me go. I can’t breathe…” She tried to wrestle free, but he had his hand on the back of her head, his arm around her back. Out in the hallway, the front door didn’t close; it banged shut with the impact of a rifle shot ricocheting through the house… and through the rest of Eve’s blighted, miserable life. “Mama slammed that door, Lucas Denning. Her Grace, the Duchess of Moreland, slammed a door, because of me, because of my stupid, selfish, useless, greedy, stupid, asinine…” There were not words to describe the depth of the betrayal she’d just handed her family. She collapsed against Deene’s chest, misery a dry, scraping ache in her throat. “Eve, many couples anticipate their vows, even a few couples closely associated with the Duchess of Moreland.” The reason in his voice had her hands balling to fists. “I will not marry you.” She could not, not him of all men. That signal fact gave her scattering wits a rallying point. Deene did not argue. When an argument was imperative, he did not argue. His hand stroked slowly over her hair, and as the fighting instinct coursing through Eve’s body struggled to stand against a swamping despair, some part of Eve’s brain made a curious observation: Deene was breathing in a slow, unhurried rhythm, and as a function of the intimacy of their posture, Eve was breathing in counterpoint to him. The same easy, almost restful tempo, but her exhale matched his inhale. “We cannot marry, Deene. I won’t have it. A white marriage was as far as I was willing to go, and then only to the right sort of man, a man who would never seek to… impose conjugal duties on me.” His arms fell away, when Eve would very much have liked them to stay around her. Better he not see her face, better she not have to see his lovely blue eyes going chill and distant. “We need to set you to rights.” His hands on her shirt were deft and impersonal, his fingers barely touching her skin. The detachment in his touch was probably meant to be a kindness, but it… hurt. “Lucas, I cannot think.” “We’ll think this through together. I can guarantee you not a soul will be coming through that door until we decide to pass through it ourselves.” “I hate that you can be so calm.” And—worst
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Grace Burrowes (Lady Eve's Indiscretion (The Duke's Daughters, #4; Windham, #7))
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You will learn that the world is full of good people and bad people, but distinguishing between them is nigh impossible.’ ‘If we are wealthy, does it mean we are greedy too?’ Mother sniffed. ‘I don’t like to admit it, but yes, I was greedy. The world is an insecure place, and I grew up poor and was afraid of being poor again. Fear makes people selfish, but if everyone is selfish, then those who need help won’t receive any.’ ‘So
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K.J. Colt (Legends: Fifteen Tales of Sword and Sorcery)
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If it has anything to do with me, it has nothing to do with sacrifice.
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Craig D. Lounsbrough
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It takes a compassionate heart to realize that people are suffering and needs help. And a compassionate heart produces love, and it takes love to give. It is only a heart filled with love, that will not be greedy or selfish.
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Topsy Gift
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The service of self ends in the service of self. And that is a very small place to find myself living in.
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Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Yes, it was almost time
for the Bears’ Thanksgiving,
the day they gave thanks
for their standard of living.
And what a standard it was!
From hollow to hill,
from glenloch to glade,
the bears of Bear Country
had it made!
Except for the legend!
The legend that said:
if the bears of Bear Country
were selfish and greedy
and insufficiently
kind to the needy,
giving them no more
than a tail or a wing,
then Bigpaw would come
AND DO HIS THING!
“We’ll have pickles
and olives,
marshmallow yams,
two kinds of pie,
jellies and jams,
seven-grain bread,
turkey, of course,
also radishes,
both red and horse,
corn-on-the-cob,
dripping with butter.
So yummily yummy!
So utterly utter!”
So as you can see
in Papa Bear’s case,
all Thanksgiving meant
was feeding his face.
“And I almost forgot,
no ifs, ands, or buts,
my favorite treat…”
“We know, Papa.
MIXED NUTS!
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Stan Berenstain (The Berenstain Bears' Thanksgiving)
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In Obama’s America, the wealth creators are greedy, selfish, and materialistic while the wealth stealers are the most morally wonderful people in the country.
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Dinesh D'Souza (Stealing America: What My Experience with Criminal Gangs Taught Me about Obama, Hillary, and the Democratic Party)
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It was a few years after the beginning of the Lebanese war, as I was attending the Wharton School, at the age of twenty-two, that I was hit with the idea of efficient markets—an idea that holds that there is no way to derive profits from traded securities since these instruments have automatically incorporated all the available information. Public information can therefore be useless, particularly to a businessman, since prices can already “include” all such information, and news shared with millions gives you no real advantage. Odds are that one or more of the hundreds of millions of other readers of such information will already have bought the security, thus pushing up the price. I then completely gave up reading newspapers and watching television, which freed up a considerable amount of time (say one hour or more a day, enough time to read more than a hundred additional books per year, which, after a couple of decades, starts mounting). But this argument was not quite the entire reason for my dictum in this book to avoid the newspapers, as we will see further benefits in avoiding the toxicity of information. It was initially a great excuse to avoid keeping up with the minutiae of business, a perfect alibi since I found nothing interesting about the details of the business world—inelegant, dull, pompous, greedy, unintellectual, selfish, and boring.
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable)
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Putting myself first is in fact putting myself in a position that is anything but first.
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Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
The U.S.A.,” I said, letting out a chuckle. “The Unanimous Station of Apathy, a station where the selfish and the greedy readily set up shop with the intent of exploiting the vulnerable!
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Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi (Call Me Zebra)
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Humans are selfish and cruel and possessive and jealous and greedy. And violent. Violent above all. The only difference is… some of us are better at it.
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Naomi West (Midnight Lies (Tasarov Bratva #2))
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Nefarious, greedy, and selfish acts are reflected and amplified in ways that adversely affect hackers in the long term. Only by programming with care and love principles will one go "Level Up.
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Rico Roho (Beyond the Fringe: My Experience with Extended Intelligence (Age of Discovery Book 3))
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Fear made people greedy and therefore selfish; that small minority who honestly did not care for themselves in that way, who could sincerely say that money was unimportant to them, almost always had no dependants.
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Elizabeth Jane Howard (All Change (Cazalet Chronicles, #5))
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The biggest problem about greedy people. They think kind people are stupid. While you are being generous to them. They think they are playing you.
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De philosopher DJ Kyos