Inspirational Quotes on Selfishness

“The instructive admonitions, “give an account of thy stewardship,“—“occupy till I come;” are forgotten. Thus the generous and wakeful spirit of Christian Benevolence, seeking and finding every where occasions for its exercise, is exploded, and a system of decent selfishness is avowedly established in its stead; a system scarcely more to be abjured for its impiety, than to be abhorred for its cold insensibility to the opportunities of diffusing happiness.”

“While it lasts, the religion of worshiping oneself is the best.”

“Sin and love are exact opposites. Love is benefiting others at the expense of yourself. Sin is benefiting yourself at the expense of others. Sin is selfishness; love is selflessness.”

“By nature, we get more pleasure from God's gifts then from Himself.”

“The greatest mistake any Christian can make is to substitute his own will for the will of God.”

“We are not only contingent beings, dependent on the love and will of a Creator whom we cannot know experientially except in so far as he reveals to us our personal relationship with him as his sons - we are also sinners who have FREELY REPUDIATED this relationship. We have rebelled against him. The spirit of rebellious refusal persists in our heart even when we try to return to him. Much could be said, at this point, about all the subtlety and ingenuity of religious egoism which is one of the worst and most ineradicable forms of self-deception. Sometimes one feels that a well-intentioned and inculpable atheist is in many ways better off - and gives more glory to God - than some people whose bigoted complacency and inhumanity to others are signs of the most obvious selfishness! Hence we not only need to recover an awareness of our creaturehood; we also must repair the injury done to truth and to love by this repudiation, this infidelity. But how? Humanly speaking, there is no way in which we can do this.”

“When the same qualities which we admire in ourselves are seen in others, even though they be superior, maliciously lower and carp at them.”

“However sweet the word may sound, any sectarian boasting is but the babbling of a babe. The divisions in the church are due to no other cause than to lack of love and walking after the flesh.”

“Love is the doorway through which the human soul passes from selfishness to service.”

“If I live for self, I can only live for one; if I live for others, I can live for 3,000,000,000.”

“There is nothing in this world so empty as getting what you want.”

“Nothing is eternal but that which is done for God and others. That which is done for self dies.”

“There are many seasons in a man's life - and the more exalted and responsible his position, the more frequently do these season's recur - when the voice of duty and the dictates of feeling are opposed to each other; and it is only the weak and the wicked who yield that obedience to the selfish impulses of the heart which is due to reason and honor.”

“Selfishness is the making a man's self his own centre, the beginning and end of all he doeth.”

“The heart of man is a short word, a small substance, scarce enough to give a kite a meal, yet great in capacity; yea, so indefinite in desire that the round globe of the world cannot fill the three corners of it. When it desires more and cries, "Give, give," I will set it over to the infinite good, where the more it hath, it may desire more, and see more to be desired.”

“Our society is filled with runaways, dropouts, and quitters. The epidemic of walking away has hit our land with effects as devastating as the bubonic plague, and it has destroyed millions of effective lives and relationships. We are so self-centred that we have ceased to lay down our lives for others. We have seen others faint or walk away and we have followed in their weakness. We have fainted when we could have persevered by exchanging our strength for His! With His strength, not only could we have kept on walking, we could have run!”

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”

“Inordinate desires commonly produce irregular endeavors. If our wishes be not kept in submission to God's providence, our pursuits will scarcely be kept under the restraints of his precepts.”

“God loves us too much to indulge our every whim.”

“We do not fool Him by saying we want something for His glory when secretly our motivations are selfish. We do not fool Him by saying we believe He can work miracles when inwardly we doubt He will follow through.”