Jim Broadbent Quotes

The major forces in human nature: self interest and caring for others

There's no such thing as altruism.

There would be no supporting life were we to feel quite as poignantly for others as we do for ourselves.

I'm really interested in the difference between selfishness and generosity. It confuses me to no end because sometimes it all just feels like pure indulgence on my part.

Without love, we are not free from our own self interest.

There is some pretty powerful self-interest in wanting a future that is not just running storm-to-storm. The argument that I make is not that we aren't competitive and selfish and greedy. We are. We're all of these things. We're complicated, competitive, greedy and nasty, and kind and generous and compassionate.

He was a patient man, a kind man, a man who cared about animals and human beings, all qualities not to be devalued, but James Herriot was not a saint. I tried so hard to play against some of the scripts that implied that he was a saint, but I don't think I was always altogether successful.

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, 'What's in it for me?'

The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

Good character consists of recognizing the selfishness that inheres in each of us and trying to balance it against the altruism to which we should all aspire. It is a difficult balance to strike, but no definition of goodness can be complete without it.

Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.

I don't know why we choose to reach out to help another person, or why we decide that we can't, and withdraw and try to care only for ourselves, but I'm fascinated by that choice.

We are so happy to advise others that occasionally we even do it in their interest.

Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control.

This idea of selfishness as a virtue, as opposed to generosity: That, to me, is unnatural.

Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives.

The great majority of people are calm, resourceful, altruistic or even beyond altruistic, as they risk themselves for others. We improvise the conditions of survival beautifully.

Of course, when I say that human nature is gentleness, it is not 100 percent so. Every human being has that nature, but there are many people acting against their nature, being false.

I don't believe we're only motivated by our own self-interests. Often out of crisis comes this enormous wellspring of generosity and motivation.

People aren't universally heroic.

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.

The world is so competitive, aggressive, consumive, selfish and during the time we spend here we must be all but that.

Charity never lacks what is her own, all that she needs for her own security. Not alone does she have it, she abounds with it. She wants this abundance for herself that she may share it with all; and she reserves enough for herself so that she disappoints nobody. For charity is perfect only when full.

I'm not very interested in myself. I do have a deep moral belief that you should always look out at other things and not be self-centred.