Mark Twain Quotes

Wishful thinking is not idealism. It is self-indulgence at best and self-exaltation at worst. In either case, it is usually at the expense of others. In other words, it is the opposite of idealism.

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

Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race.

The egoist is fooled by no ideals: he discards them or uses them, as may suit his own interest.

We're not all nice, and there are a lot of levels of ambition and niceness.

Unfortunately, there are writers whose only concern is how good they could make themselves look on a title.

Self-interest speaks all sorts of tongues and plays all sorts of characters, even that of disinterestedness

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.

Power is so pleasant that men quickly learn to be greedy in the enjoyment of it, and to flatter themselves that patriotism requires them to be imperious.

For Trump, it's always about Trump and how he makes more money.

Individuals motivated by self-interest, self-indulgence, and a false sense of self-sufficiency pursue selfish ambition for the purpose of self-glorification.

There are many selfish people who are extremely original, then they take those pure ideas and use them to raise themselves up, that is an insincere move.

Up to his twenty-sixth year, the heart of Ignatius was enthralled by the vanities of the world. His special delight was in the military life, and he seemed led by a strong and empty desire of gaining for himself a great name.

There are many things which swallow up men's thoughts while they live, which they will think little of when they are dying. Hundreds are wholly absorbed in political schemes and seem to care for nothing but the advancement of their own party. Myriads are buried in business and money matters and seem to neglect everything else but this world.

A lot of comedians are selfish.

Racing is a very selfish, self-centred, self-glorifying thing. My wife's life for 14 years was centered around me. It was all about me. It was all for my ego.

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

As readers, we sense when the game is being played for real and when something else is afoot: pride, showmanship, the pursuit of power, self-aggrandizement, revenge, making money. Not that there's anything wrong with any of that, but I dislike closing a book with the sense that I've been had.

I think that in today's world, by nature, we are all self-centered. And that often leads to selfishness.

They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.

Once you start thinking about it in a mercenary frame of mind, then you're finished. You're a joke, because there are too many mercenaries out there already.

The whole business is built on ego, vanity, self-satisfaction, and it's total crap to pretend it's not.

We really can't tell the difference between people who might seek power for some greater good and people who seek power just to aggrandize themselves. For example, all revolutionaries say that they want to uplift the downtrodden.

If you are passionate only about yourself -that is the road to disaster.

The cult of individuality and personality, which promotes painters and poets only to promote itself, is really a business. The greater the 'genius' of the personage, the greater the profit.