Selfish Reasons Quotes

She wondered if it counted as being good if you did the good thing for purely selfish reasons. Probably not, but who cared. What was important was what you did, not how you felt. ~ Emily Gould

For purely selfish reasons, the old man had preserved what the rest of the world had destroyed. ~ Nancy Farmer

It is best to marry for purely selfish reasons. ~ Anita Brookner

Our ancestors had fought and murdered one another, married and forged alliances, founded countries. At their best - but only for selfish reasons - they patronized art, literature, and music. But their worlds had to be overthrown by revolutions, because there was room in them only for themselves. ~ Andrei Codrescu

Being "ordinary" means that we reject the idolatry of pursuing excellence for selfish reasons. We aren't digging wells in Africa to prove our worth or value. We aren't serving in the soup kitchen or engaging in spiritual disciplines because we long to be unique, radical, and different. When we do these things for selfish reasons, God becomes a tool for winning our lifetime achievement award. Our neighbors become instruments in the crafting of our sense of meaning, impact, and identity. What we do for God is really for ourselves. ~ Michael S. Horton

There seems to be no doubt that love and compassion are good, in that they connect us more deeply to others.30 Given this situation, we can see that one could desire to become more loving and compassionate for purely selfish reasons. ~ Sam Harris

I started my Twitter account for selfish reasons: I wanted to have a place to post updates on my book signing tour and stuff like that. I never realized that I'd have so much fun tweeting. It's become the deleted scenes for my DVD of columns and podcasts. ~ Bill Simmons

Volunteering to help others is the right thing to do, and it also boosts personal happiness; a review of research by the Corporation for National and Community Service shows that those who aid the causes they value tend to be happier and in better health. They show fewer signs of physical and mental aging. And it's not just that helpful people also tend to be healthier and happier; helping others causes happiness. "Be selfless, if only for selfish reasons," as one of my happiness paradoxes holds. About one-quarter of Americans volunteer, and of those, a third volunteer for more than a hundred hours each year. ~ Gretchen Rubin

Man is an extremely complex creature: he usually acts in an unselfish manner for selfish reasons. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

I suppose that one of the reasons I wrote 'In Contempt' was because of the money. After the trial I came to realize that there were things that I needed to do if I was to protect myself and my family, so there were some selfish reasons for it. ~ Christopher Darden

I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows. ~ Ayn Rand

The little-understood concept of interdependence appears to many to smack of dependence, and therefore, we find people, often for selfish reasons, leaving their marriages, abandoning their children, and forsaking all kinds of social responsibility - all in the name of independence. ~ Stephen R. Covey

When one becomes a liberal, he or she pretends to advocate tolerance, equality and peace, but hilariously, they're doing so for purely selfish reasons. It's the human equivalent of a puppy dog's face: an evolutionary tool designed to enhance survival, reproductive value and status. In short, liberalism is based on one central desire: to look cool in front of others in order to get love. Preaching tolerance makes you look cooler, than saying something like, 'please lower my taxes.' ~ Greg Gutfeld

M'ijita. That is not what it is for. And selfish reasons are almost always the wrong reasons. ~ Juliet Blackwell

My father after all was a drunk. As much as I had loved him and adored him as a child, I had begun to realize how much he had wasted his life and his own opportunities in life. As much as I resented Mother's control of him, I began to realize that she had a reason for pushing him and that it was not entirely for selfish reasons. She also wanted our family to be more. ~ Karlyle Tomms

I became a lawyer for selfish reasons. I thought I could do a lawyer's job better than any other. ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Let's not forget, a lot of people have children for selfish reasons, Jessica said. In order to have someone to play with, or to take care of them when they're old. Or because they're bored and don't have anything to do...She wanted to adore her children in a way that she had never been adored. ~ Alethea Black

The reason I play music is to touch people - for selfish reasons, as well. It feels good to make someone else feel something, whether it's a kiss, a painting, good idea or it's a song. ~ Dave Matthews

If you practice Yoga for small, selfish reasons, you will remain the same, bound by your beliefs about what you can and cannot do. Let go and offer your effort to limitless potential. Dedicate yourself to the happiness of all beings. ~ Sharon Gannon

You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you or my boy to me? I forgo the vengeance of my son. But I have selfish reasons, my youngest son was forced to leave this country because of this Sollozzo business. All right, now I have to make arrangements to bring him back here safely cleared of all these false charges. But I'm a superstitious man and if some unlucky accident should befall him, if he should get shot in the head by a police officer, or if should hang himself in his jail cell, or if he's struck by a bolt of lightening, then I'm going to blame some of the people in this room, and that I do not forgive. But, that aside, let me say that I swear, on the souls of my grandchildren, that I will not be the one to break the peace we have made here today. ~ Mario Puzo

A blanket could be used for selfish reasons. I would list those reasons, but they're mine - all of them. Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. ~ Jarod Kintz

Why would the apostles lie? ... Liars always lie for selfish reasons. If they lied, what was their motive, what did they get out of it? What they got out of it was misunderstanding, rejection, persecution, torture, and martyrdom. Hardly a list of perks! ~ Peter Kreeft

Count your blessings for selfish reasons! Psychological studies show that people who are aware of their blessings and feel grateful for them live longer than non-grateful people, have fewer medical problems such as hypertension, earn more and achieve longer marriages. ~ Gregg Easterbrook

It also seems honorable that another woman would value motherhood over all my priorities. But I do not believe that I am selfish and she is not. There are women who chose motherhood for selfish reasons. There are mothers who act selfishly even if they chose motherhood in a burst of altruistic love. Selfishness and generosity are not relegated to particular life choices and if generosity is a worthy life goal--and I believe it is--perhaps our task is to choose the path that for us creates its best opportunity. ~ Pam Houston

In recent years, many seem to have spent their lives protesting. Perhaps they have felt to do this because they have felt repressed or wished to bring about change or have acted out of selfish reasons, thinking that if they tore the house down they might end up with a shingle. ~ James E. Faust

Seconds turn into minutes and minutes into hours. It is all still the same. Or it no longer is. If I were to ask what has changed, perhaps nothing, but conceivably everything would be the befitting reply. I no longer feel the same.
Loss preceded me, alienating my soul from the body. I feel I am gliding through an alley making a journey from the known towards the unknown. There is a deep abyss inside where sometime back, my heart used to beat and a noisy, rusty old machine has replaced my mind; solitarily creating useless noise.
I don't remember what day it is and since when have I been lying here. It must have been yesterday… or was it day before. I cannot recollect anything except the dull throbbing pain inside my brain. I can see the time, almost 9: 45, difficult to say which time of the day it is.
The bigger hand is soon going to overshadow the smaller hand. It looks like a game of cat and mouse; the bigger hand chasing the smaller one. Anyone stronger in terms of physical appearance, money, power, fame or name tramples upon the weak ones - that is the rule of the world. There are only two possible reasons behind it, love or hate. When you love someone you want to control everything that person does and hence, sometimes, knowingly or unknowingly you squash them like melons.
While on the other hand in the case of hate, there is no need to specify the reason for walking over someone like that. Hate is a strong reason in itself. I am confused as to what ~ Namrata

I hated myself for so many reasons, and I thought so many things were my fault that happened to me growing up. ~ Mary J. Blige

I'd recognize this look more and more as I grew older, in places both private and public, for reasons both explicit and unspoken, and once you've been seen through in this way -- once you have been made transparent -- no amount of physical pain matches the weight of invisibility. ~ Brando Skyhorse (Author)

I spend my life constantly calling in 'imaginary' debts that aren't owed to me in order to avoid the 'real' debts that I owe to others, and so everybody ends up bankrupt. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

You can't succeed in any endeavor if your motive is solely selfish- feeding your ego, seeking recognition, fame, etc. Find a lasting motivation... ~ Assegid Habtewold

Sometimes people need reasons for things, even when there are no reasons. That's what makes people believe in conspiracies or religions - if there is any difference. The world is just too complicated, so they need simple explanations. ~ Tad Williams

There are plenty of reasons for hope. There need be no war with Russia, and those who would fight her now, on the theory that we had better do it and get it over with, are lightheaded promoters of world destruction. ~ Harold W. Dodds

My Camille," he said, his voice as soft and powerful as a blow from a bellows, "did you believe you'd sail with me forever?"
She wanted to say yes, just to be able to say yes. But she shook her head.
"This is all my fault," her father mumbled.
Camille sat back in the chaise longue and curled her legs beneath her. "What is?"
"I shouldn't have let you accompany me to sea all these years. I should have sent you to a proper finishing school, given you a chance to find your place here in San Francisco. Instead, I was selfish and wanted you with me every moment."
Camille relaxed her shoulders. "I don't mind your selfishness, Father."
He sent her a grin, but it was the one he used when there was a caveat attached.
"It did have to end sometime, Camille. True ladies don't belong on merchant ships, and it's high time you were a lady instead of a child."
He was right, though she wished he weren't. "True ladies" didn't sail on ships. Their palms weren't blistered from hauling line, the bridges of their noses and apples of their cheeks weren't bronzed from the sun, and they most certainly didn't associate with sailors.
Camille sighed. "Being a true lady sounds achingly dull. ~ Angie Frazier

I've got no reason to live, but a lot of reasons to die...this is just the best one. ~ Ammar Habib

During my short college stint, every time I picked up a pen, this grinding, unnamed fear overcame me - later identified as fear that my real self would spill out. One can't mount a stripper pole wearing a metal diving suit. What I needed to write kept simmering up while I wrote down everything but that. In fact, I kept ginning out reasons that writing reality was impossible. I cranked up therapy and drank like a fish. ~ Mary Karr

Hello, boys and girls. Hannah Baker here. Live and in stereo. No return engagements. No encore. And this time, absolutely no requests. I hope you're ready, because i'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to theses tapes, you're one of the reasons why.
Now, why would a dead girl lie? ~ Jay Asher

Animal welfare - yes. Animal rights - don't make me laugh. I'm not an animals rights activist. I certainly do not love animals. In fact, I secretly mistrust all four-legged / furry / two-winged / feathered / shelled ar scaly brothers and sisters. If I were them, I would by now be plotting ultimate revenge on a scale previously unknown to man. ... I stick to a vegan diet only for reasons of self-preservertion. Call it insurance. When the time of the great animal uprising comes, I may have a small chance of escaping ... ~ Sharon Dodua Otoo

I want you to remember that no matter what, your physical and mental health are the most important thing. That is not being selfish; that is protecting yourself, so you can participate in healthy relationships. Cutting toxic people from your life is necessary for your own personal health and growth. "I ~ Kristen Proby

People study martial arts for many reasons, sometimes all the wrong reasons. For example, I have had potential students come to my dojo with a belligerent and cocky attitude. When I ask why they want to study my art, their response has indicated to me that their goal is to learn to fight, which is the antithesis of the philosophy I hope to instill: I want them to know how to defend themselves if necessary, but to avoid fighting whenever possible because they will have nothing to prove by fighting. ~ Chuck Norris

Start watching out for any thoughts or feelings that are immature, angry, inaccurate, selfish, weak, scared, dramatic, or in any way based in fear. In those moments, start to practice consciously choosing love for yourself and others instead. ~ Kimberly Giles

Reason excludes faith," Alessandro responded, watching the blood-red mite as it made a dash for the rim. "It's deliberately limited. It won't function with the materials of religion. You can come close to proving the existence of God by reason, but you can't do it absolutely. That's because you can't do anything absolutely by reason. That's because reason depends on postulates. Postulates defy proof and yet they are essential to reason. God is a postulate. I don't think God is interested in the verification of His existence, and, therefore, neither am I. Anyway, I have professional reasons to believe. Nature and art pivot faithfully around God. Even dogs know that. ~ Mark Helprin

It's hard to get people to overcome the thought that they have to take care of themselves first. It's hard to get players to give in to the group and become selfless as opposed to selfish. ~ Isaiah Thomas

For five years the refugees of Eastern Europe had been pouring into Austria through every fast-closing gap in the barbed wire: crashing frontiers in stolen cars and lorries, across minefields, clinging to the underneath of trains, to be corralled and questioned and decided over in their thousands, while they played chess on wooden packing cases and showed each other photographs of people they would never see again. They came from Hungary and Romania and Poland and Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia and sometimes Russia, and they hoped they were on their way to Canada and Australia and Palestine. They had travelled by devious routes and often for devious reasons. They were doctors and scientists and bricklayers. They were truck drivers, thieves, acrobats, publishers, rapists and architects. ~ Adam Sisman

Don't expect perfection and things to go the way you want
them to when it comes to people, business, your prospects,
and your social life. When things don't go according to your desires, when the weather of life is foul, be creative and
consider what may be the higher reasons why this is
happening and why you must adjust. Perhaps it's to gain forbearance, patience, inner strength, flexibility, or the
ability to withhold criticism while serving as a loving model. ~ Michael Goddart

One of the reasons we do history, in fact, is because it acts as a brake, a control, on our otherwise unbridled enthusiasm for our own ideas. ~ N. T. Wright

When you win an election, you are always inclined to believe you won for the reasons you wanted to win. ~ William Galston

Many of us have the false idea that a relationship's purpose is to somehow fulfill our needs and desires. We look to see what we can get out of the relationship instead of what we can put in. Looked at like this, relationships are often little more than a needs exchange. We need this (safety, love, intimacy); a man needs that (security, companionship, sex). When we come across a good fit, both parties tacitly agree to do a trade and call it love. This transaction-based relationship model is why so many relationships feel empty and dead. They are completely devoid of anything real and intimate. After the initial rush of excitement is over, they're more like business contracts than sacred unions.
Let's face it. We've all been conditioned to use relationships for the wrong reasons: to end loneliness, relieve depression, recover from a previous breakup, or find security. The problem is that this is not what relationships are for.
Relationships are a spiritual opportunity for personal evolution. There is no greater arena for discovering your capacity for love, forgiveness, compassion, personal greatness, and full self-expression. Nowhere else will you meet the grandest and smallest parts of yourself. Nowhere else will you confront your self-imposed limits to intimacy. Nowhere else can you forgive so deeply or love so purely.
This is relationship's real purpose: to serve the mutual growth and soulful expression of each individual. It's a chance to share your enthusia ~ Marie Forleo

My son died from cancer. My granddaughter died from cancer. I have a lot of reasons to think that reality is not a friendly neighborhood. And the stories that I tell distract me, and if I do the job right, they distract people from things that are happening to them that they wish had never happened. ~ David Morrell

Survival," I said softly. "It's selfish, and it's dark, and we've always been a species willing to do anything to satisfy our needs. Individuals have morals. Mobs have appetites. ~ Rachel Caine

I realized, suddenly and quite shockingly, that her answered mattered to me - for a number of reasons...
I would be without a valuable companion and counterpart for my adventures, and I discovered, to my surprise, that that realization did not sit well with me at all. For all her weaknesses, Evaline Stoker was also a significant force to be reckoned with in her own way. We did complement each other, and I would miss having her by my side on any future endeavors. ~ Colleen Gleason

But your way isn't just that set of rules," Cord said. "It's who you are - you follow that way for bigger reasons. And as long as you stay true to that, the confusion you're talking about will sort itself out eventually. ~ Neal Stephenson

The way evolution always discovers reasons is by retroactive endorsement. ~ Daniel Dennett

It's better to be controversial for the right reasons, than to be popular for the wrong reasons. ~ Shimon Peres

MY ASS IS WORTH MORE THAN YOUR INCONVENIENCE ... that's my response to anyone opposed to universal background checks. If Ted Nugent has to wait three days because his wife wants a Howitzer for the backyard -- tough shit! If a background check keeps ONE gun out of the hands of ONE maniac thereby saving MY ass, it's worth it. May sound a bit selfish, but I'd hope you're equally fond of your own ass. ~ Quentin R. Bufogle

I would not be a good mother. I mean, I love being an aunt to my niece and nephew. And I used to want to, like, adopt 10 kids - because I had friends who were adopted, and I thought that was the coolest thing, to be chosen. But again, my job is too selfish. ~ Kelly Clarkson

Everybody who undergoes a death and finds themselves grieving is obsessed with the idea that they can't display self-pity, they have to be strong. Actually there are a lot of reasons why you are going to feel sorry for yourself, but that's your first concern. ~ Joan Didion

It is something of a miracle that individual selfish decisions (in a market economy) must lead to a collectively efficient outcome. ~ Steven Landsburg

I have a conscience, but it's a feeble, withered shred of a thing. It couldn't protect you or anyone else from a stiff breeze.' Glokta sighed, long and hard. The room was too hot, too bright, his eyes were sore and twitchy and he rubbed at them slowly as he spoke. 'You could not even guess at the things that I have done. Awful, evil, obscene, the telling of them alone could make you puke.' He shrugged. 'They nag at me from time to time, but I tell myself I had good reasons. The years pass, the unimaginable becomes everyday, the hideous becomes tedious, the unbearable becomes routine. I push it all into the dark corners of my mind, and it's incredible the room back there. Amazing what one can live with. ~ Joe Abercrombie

The selfish mind is the distracted mind and the distracted mind is the easily oppressed mind. ~ Selena Gomez

One of the reasons that the African American actors wanted to be a part of the show was because these people are talking to each other the way that African American people talk to each other, and they said that they didn't see that on TV. ~ Tony Goldwyn

If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock. ~ Tim Cook