Michael Moore Quotes

The flesh, or human nature, is generally lazy and self-centered.

I have lived too long to cherish many illusions about the essential high-mindedness of men when brought into stark confrontation with the issue of control over their security, and their property interests.

Man's greed to obtain something for nothing has never yet been able to content itself with a moderate profit.

Man is essentially a selfish creature. The differences in the degree with which this developed are infinite.

Most men have always wanted as much as they could get; and possession has always blunted the fine edge of their altruism.

I say you don't need religion, or political ideology, to understand human nature. Science reveals that human nature is greedy and selfish, altruistic and helpful.

Human nature is such that people are born with a love of profit If they follow these inclinations, they will struggle and snatch from each other, and inclinations to defer or yield will die.

Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.

From the first day to this, sheer greed was the driving spirit of civilization.

The only two things you can truly depend upon are gravity and greed.

Greed is a basic part of animal nature. Being against it is like being against breathing or eating. It means nothing.

There is always greed. There is nothing wrong with greed.

The great corrupter of public man is the ego.

The instinct of ownership is fundamental in man’s nature.

The bad propensities of human nature are only kept within bounds when they are allowed no scope for their indulgence

That spirit of freedom, which at the commencement of this contest would have gladly sacrificed everything to the attainment of its object, has long since subsided, and every selfish passion has taken its place. It is not the public, but private interest, which influences the generality of mankind, nor can the Americans any longer boast an exception. Under these circumstances it would rather have been surprising if you had succeeded.

Greed, greed, greed. That’s the fundamental problem of mankind. If we can solve that problem, the rest of man’s problems would follow. The only thing that can undermine our free society is greed.

I believe that people generally want to be what we call good. They want to cooperate with people. They don't want to steal; they don't want to cheat. But everybody has a price. Everybody has an incentive.

People are selfish, man. They want what they want; they don't care what you want.

People always should know better. People don't get - they don't get smarter about things that get as basic as greed.

People are just greedy animals, after all.

When . . . in the course of all these thousands of years has man ever acted in accordance with his own interests?

We fail to reckon with the reality of human nature. By nature,we are egocentric. Our world revolves around us. None of us is totally altruistic.

When a miser contents himself with giving nothing, and saving what he has got, and is in other respects guilty of no injustice, he is, perhaps, of all bad men the least injurious to society; the evil he does is properly nothing more than the omission of the good he might do. If, of all the vices, avarice is the most generally detested, it is the effect of an avidity common to all men; it is because men hate those from whom they can expect nothing. The greedy misers rail at sordid misers.

We cannot doubt that self-interest is the mainspring of human nature. It must be clearly understood that this word is used here to designate a universal, incontestable fact, resulting from the nature of man, and not an adverse judgment, as would be the word selfishness.