Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes

I think most people act in their self-interest.

Men will always be powerfully influenced in their Opinions and Actions by what appears to be their particular Interest.

The common class of mankind are actuated by no nobler principle than that of self-interest; this and this alone determines all adventurers in privateers: the owners, as well as those whom they employ.

I'm sure some cynical people would point to that as the main reason for doing it for a lot of people.

Men are not against you; they are merely for themselves.

They regard as just whatever they believe to be advantageous.

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

Even wisdom has to yield to self-interest.

There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.

People are motivated by the desires for privilege, for power, for profit. Those are not shocking revelations. Anyone who's had any experience in life knows these things.

Fear, prejudice, malice, and the love of approbation bribe a thousand men where gold bribes one.

No man will work for your interests unless they are his.

People don't change their behavior unless it makes a difference for them to do so.

Ambition is the mother of hypocrisy and prefers to skulk in corners and dark places. It cannot endure the light of day. It is an unclean vice wallowing in the depths, always hidden, but with ever an eye to advancement.

Everybody has an agenda.

Greed has been severely underestimated and denigrated—unfairly so in my opinion. … there's nothing wrong with avarice as a motive as long as it doesn't lead to dishonest … conduct.

Self interest is a masterful agent in modern civilization.

I feel like, especially in Hollywood, you meet people with ulterior motives, who are trying to get something from you.

Men are driven by two principal impulses, either by love or by fear.

There are six reasons anyone does anything: Love. Faith. Greed. Boredom. Fear..." he said, ticking them off on his fingers; but he lingered on the last, drawing a deep breath before he said, "Revenge.

Strikers are egotists, selfish. We have to be.

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.

There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest.

There is no word more generally misinterpreted than the word egoism, in its modern sense.

The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.