“If my idiosyncrasies disturb you in some way, if they somehow bother you or disrupt your life, do you now have a grievance against me, for being so , or do I have one against you, for being so narrow-minded?” — Agnes Callard, “Torturing Geniuses,” The Point (2020-11-24)
“We praise people who insist on being themselves as courageous and independent—except when we blame them as selfish and narcissistic.” — Agnes Callard, “Torturing Geniuses,” The Point (2020-11-24)
“There is frequently much selfishness about remorse.” — Arthur Helps, Friends in Council, First Series
“Each man does seek his own interest, but, unfortunately, not according to the dictates of reason.” — Kenneth Waltz, Man, the State, and War
“Can the decision to be less selfish ever be anything other than a selfish decision?” — David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm— but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” — T.S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party
“Superiority makes every man feel its equal. It is courtesy without condescension; affability without familiarity; self-sufficiency without selfishness; simplicity without snide. It weighs sixteen ounces to the pound without the package, and it doesn’t need a four-colored label to make it go.” — George Horace Lorimer, Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
“If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all?” — Elbert Hubbard, A Message to Garcia
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