David Hume Quotes

In our relations with the people around us, we forgive them more readily for what they do, which they can help, than for what they are, which they cannot help.

It's easy to see the faults in people I know; it's hardest to see the good. Especially when the good isn't there.

It is the liberal philosophy, not the conservative one, that views humans as selfish automatons.

As I allow myself my own weaknesses, I should tolerate the weaknesses of others.

In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.

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.

It needs some intelligence to be truly selfish. The unintelligent can only be self-righteous.

We are not slow at discovering the selfishness of others; for this plain reason--because it clashes with our own.

You have to see through one's faults before you see their need.

we can forgive anything as long as it isn't done to us.

Selfishness is one of the principal fruits of the corruption of human nature; and it is obvious that selfishness disposes us to over-rate our good qualities, and to overlook or extenuate our defects.

Every person on the face of the earth makes mistakes, Lily. Every last one. We're all so human. Your mother made a terrible mistake, but she tried to fix it.' 'Good night,' I said, and rolled onto my side. 'There is nothing perfect,' August said from the doorway. 'There is only life.

In short, selfishness is the opposite of love.

Self-interest, or rather self-love, or egoism, has been more plausibly substituted as the basis of morality.

People are just greedy animals, after all.

Let this be one invariable rule of your conduct--never to show the least symptom of resentment, which you cannot, to a certain degree, gratify; but always to smile, where you cannot strike.

It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility.

The force of selfishness is as inevitable and as calculable as the force of gravitation.

Human beings are struggling, and so they are egoists. But it's wrong to say that they are wholy cruel - it's a deformed view.

I would also hope that readers receive a larger understanding, or a different understanding, of what it means to be human, than they might have had before. We suffer from being quick to judge, quick to make excuses for ourselves and others, and I would like the reader to feel that we are all, more or less, in a similar state as we love and disappoint one another, and that we try, most of us, as best we can, and that to fail and succeed is what we do.

But the reality is we often become our kindest, most ethical selves only by seeing what it feels like to be a selfish jackass first.

People are really trying their best. Just like being happy and sad, you will find yourself on both sides of the equation many times over your lifetime, either saying or hearing the wrong thing. Let's all give each other a pass, shall we?

We almost always forgive those we understand.

The longer I live, the larger allowances I make for human infirmities. I exact more from myself and less from others.

Even when people act nastily to you, don't condemn them or retaliate.