23 Quotes About Egoism

While selfishness and egoism are often used interchangeably, they can be very different things. Selfishness refers to an action that harms others; egoism refers to the attitude that we should do whatever we want as long as no one is harmed as a result. It’s important not to confuse the two as one may be contrary to the other. We’ve created this list of egoism quotes to help you distinguish between the two and make better decisions in your life.

1
Perhaps what I am about to say will appear strange to you gentlemen, socialists, progressives, humanitarians as you are, but I never worry about my neighbor, I never try to protect society which does not protect me -- indeed, I might add, which generally takes no heed of me except to do me harm -- and, since I hold them low in my esteem and remain neutral towards them, I believe that society and my neighbor are in my debt. Alexandre Dumas
2
Many people suffer great miseries but if you ask them in front of others, 'you went through great difficulty, didn't you?', then they will respond, 'no, no I didn't have any suffering'. Then they feel happy. So what kind of ‘egoism’ should one do? During times of sorrow, one should do the ‘egoism’ of happiness such that 'no one is happier than I! ' People in general do the ‘egoism’ of sorrow at the time of happiness. Dada Bhagwan
3
When I was a student, there wasn't a single thing we did that was unrelated to others. It was all for the Emperor, or parents, or the country, or society–everything was other-centered, which means that all educated men were hypocrites. When society changed, this hypocrisy ceased to work, and as a result, self-centeredness was gradually imported into thought and action, and egoism became enormously over-developed. Instead of the old hypocrites, now all we've got are out-and-out rogues. Do you see what I mean by that? . Unknown
4
If we break someone’s ego, then we can’t be happy. Egoism is his life! Dada Bhagwan
5
There is no problem if there is ‘egoism’. But, it should be ‘normal’. ‘Normal’ egoism means that it does not hurt anyone. Dada Bhagwan
6
Why does one ruminate about the past? He is treating his wounded egoism. Dada Bhagwan
7
The worldly life runs easily due to the egoism which is the by-production of the worldly life. By increasing the egoism there, one has incurred endless worries. Dada Bhagwan
8
Whatever one knows, he knows on the basis of his egoism. The ‘Gnani’ [The enlightened one], who doesn’t know how to do anything; has no egoism whatsoever. Dada Bhagwan
9
Where there is ‘egoism’, there is no God. Where there is God, there is no ‘egoism’. Dada Bhagwan
10
What is the benefit of egoism? It is only through the benefit of egoism that people get their daughters married, get their sons married, walk around as a father and say ‘mine, mine’! The entire world is enjoying the benefit of egoism. The Gnanis (Self-realized) enjoy the benefit of the Self. Dada Bhagwan
11
Egoism does not have eyes of its own. Some days, it sees through the eyes of the intellect (buddhi). However, what will happen if you befriend a blind man? Dada Bhagwan
12
As many numbers of people as are there, there are that many varieties of egoisms. Dada Bhagwan
13
Where the world comes in my way - and it comes in my way everywhere - I consume it to quiet the hunger of my egoism. For me you are nothing but - my food, even as I too am fed upon and turned to use by you. We have only one relation to each other, that of usableness, of utility, of use. We owe each other nothing, for what I seem to owe you I owe at most to myself. If I show you a cheery air in order to cheer you likewise, then your cheeriness is of consequence to me, and my air serves my wish; to a thousand others, whom I do not aim to cheer, I do not show it. Max Stirner
14
We who are born into this age of freedom and independence and the self must undergo this loneliness. It is the price we pay for these times of ours. Unknown
15
She enjoyed her own pain by this egoism of suffering, if I may so express it. This aggravation of suffering and this rebelling in it I could understand; it is the enjoyment of man, of the insulted and injured, oppressed by destiny, and smarting under the sense of its injustice. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
16
Whatever they say about it, but being altruistic is not so simple for everyone. Not to look and sound like despotism, altruism must be learnt, and it’s a long way, which in fact begins from our egoism, for really, a human can’t love others if he doesn’t love himself first. Lara Biyuts
17
Failure to recognize one's own absolute significance is equivalent to a denial of human worth; this is a basic error and the origin of all unbelief. If one is so faint-hearted that he is powerless even to believe in himself, how can he believe in anything else? The basic falsehood and evil of egoism lie not in this absolute self-consciousness and self-evaluation of the subject, but in the fact that, ascribing to himself in all justice an absolute significance, he unjustly refuses to others this same significance. Recognizing himself as a centre of life (which as a matter of fact he is), he relegates others to the circumference of his own being and leaves them only an external and relative value. Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov
18
It is something like the way dame Nature gathers round a foreign body an envelope of some insensitive tissue which can protect from evil that which it would otherwise harm by contact. If this be an ordered selfishness, then we should pause before we condemn any one for the vice of egoism, for there may be deeper root for its causes than we have knowledge of. Bram Stoker
19
There is only one power which can from within undermine egoism at the root, and really does undermine it, namely love, and chiefly sexual love. The falsehood and evil of egoism consists in the exclusive acknowledgement of absolute significance for oneself and in the denial of it for others. Reason shows us that this is unfounded and unjust, but simply by the facts love directly abrogates such an unjust relation, compelling us not by abstract consciousness, but by an internal emotion and the will of life to recognize for ourselves the absolute significance of another. Recognizing in love the truth of another, not abstractly, but essentially, transferring in deed the centre of our life beyond the limits of our empirical personality, we by so doing reveal and realize our own real truth, our own absolute significance, which consists just in our capacity to transcend the borders of our factual phenomenal being, in our capacity to live not only in ourselves, but also in another. . Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov
20
…In the very simplicity of her desire to punish herself appeared egoism in its purest form. Never before had this woman who seemed to think only of herself experienced an egoism so immaculate. Yukio Mishima
21
The meaning and worth of love, as a feeling, is that it really forces us, with all our being, to acknowledge for ANOTHER the same absolute central significance which, because of the power of our egoism, we are conscious of only in our own selves. Love is important not as one of our feelings, but as the transfer of all our interest in life from ourselves to another, as the shifting of the very centre of our personal life. This is characteristic of every kind of love, but predominantly of sexual love; it is distinguished from other kinds of love by greater intensity, by a more engrossing character, and by the possibility of a more complete overall reciprocity. Only this love can lead to the real and indissoluble union of two lives into one; only of it do the words of Holy Writ say: 'They shall be one flesh, ' i.e., shall become one real being. . Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov
22
One altar forever is preserved, that whereon we burn incense to the supreme idol, --ourselves, our god is great, and money is his Prophet! We devastate nature in order to make sacrifice to him; we boast that we have conquered Matter and forget that it is matter that has forever enslaved us. Unknown