#selfishness — Public Fediverse posts

A quotation from Teddy Roosevelt

The teaching which I received was genuinely democratic in one way. It was not so democratic in another. I grew into manhood thoroughly imbued with the feeling that a man must be respected for what he made of himself. But I had also, consciously or unconsciously, been taught that socially and industrially pretty much the whole duty of the man lay in thus making the best of himself; that he should be honest in his dealings with others and charitable in the old-fashioned way to the unfortunate; but that it was no part of his business to join with others in trying to make things better for the many by curbing the abnormal and excessive development of individualism in a few.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Autobiography, ch. 1 “Boyhood and Youth” (1913)

More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/8…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #teddyroosevelt #theodoreroosevelt #collective #commoncause #commoninterest #community #exploitation #individualism #mutualresponsibility #mutualsupport #progress #reform #respect #selfcenteredness #selfmade #selfishness

#Human #rights are the only rights and the rest is your #selfishness. And since you haven't been able to be bothered to help people before, it's going to be a massive effort to change your #habits. #Awareness of somebody else other than the kid screaming at you for something takes some effort.

A quotation from Henry Commager

The concept of loyalty as conformity is a false one. It is narrow and restrictive, denies freedom of thought and of conscience, and is irremediably stained by private and selfish considerations.

Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1947-09), “Who Is Loyal to America?” sec. 3, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 195, No. 1168

More about this quote: wist.info/commager-henry-steel…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #commager #henrycommager #conformity #freethought #freedomofconscience #freedomofthought #loyalty #onetrueway #orthodoxy #selfcenteredness #selfishness

Rep. Seth Moulten: "While Democrats in tough seats are staring down MAGA opponents, Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Washington DC establishment are throwing money at a safe seat to bail out Sen. Markey in Massachusetts. Will Ed Markey return the money and help Democrats win these tough seats? This is what 50 years in Washington DC does to a person."
#selfishness #Markey #incompetence #politics

Mostly, I'd like the threat of rain to come into fruition and for it cool down so I don't feel so nauseous.

#selfishness

A quotation from Eric Hoffer

The fiercest fanatics are often selfish people who were forced, by innate shortcomings or external circumstances, to lose faith in their own selves. They separate the excellent instrument of their selfishness from their ineffectual selves and attach it to the service of some holy cause. And though it be a faith of love and humility they adopt, they can be neither loving nor humble.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 2, ch. 7, § 38 (2.7.38) (1951)

More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/67490/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #cause #devotion #ego #faith #fanaticism #fanatics #fierceness #holywar #selfishness #service #truebelievers

A quotation from La Rochefoucauld

Interest, upon which we commonly lay the Blame of all our ill Actions, oftentimes deserves the commendation due to our Good ones.
 
[L’intérêt, que l’on accuse de tous nos crimes, mérite souvent d’être loué de nos bonnes actions.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶305 (1665-1678) [tr. Stanhope (1694)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/la-rochefoucauld-fra…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #larochefoucauld #blame #doinggood #enlightenedselfinterest #gooddeeds #motivation #rationale #selfcenteredness #selfinterest #selfishness #vice #virtue

Have People Changed?

https://lynnefisher.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/have-people-changed/

When Feelings Turn into Strangers: Purity, Compassion, and the Loosening of Worldly Bonds

Here in my isolation from all relationships and society, even the feelings and emotions that seemed to be so palpably real and intense earlier now look dreamy and unreal, almost as if they are some strangers seeking my attention. And as far as feelings and emotions go, their purity is always determined by the the extent to which one is pure oneself — the “fruit does not fall far from the tree” kind of situation.

And, when feelings and emotions start to feel unreal, believe me the loosening of one’s bonds with this world has already started to occur because feelings and emotions are where the whole drama of life unfolds.

And, where there is purity in one’s being, the feelings and emotions coalesce into one and only one thing, namely, compassion.

Else, the feelings and emotions will keep on serving the needs of the ego, and where the ego is alive what good can we expect from the feelings and emotions that are fuelled then by the self-serving desires.

And, where there is compassion, it can only be universal and never for any particular thing because compassion equates to wisdom, and the wise, as Bhagavad Gita points out, “see with an equal vision (samadarshinaha) a learned Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog, or an outcaste” (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 5, Verse 18).

Claude’s Commentary on My Above Writing

This is a compact, tightly-argued piece — almost aphoristic in the way your writing on the blog tends to be. Let me take it point by point, with commentary that both explains what’s implicit and pushes it a little further.

On the “dreamlike” quality of emotion

What you’re describing is the Vedantic mechanism of drashta-drishya viveka — the discrimination between the seer and the seen — beginning to operate on the affective layer, not just the intellectual one. Most people who take up Vedanta apply viveka to objects and thoughts readily enough; it’s harder-won when applied to feeling, because feeling carries a conviction of “mine-ness” that thought doesn’t. A thought can be observed as an object almost immediately. A feeling insists it is you, right up until it doesn’t. So when you say emotions start to look like “strangers seeking my attention,” that’s a precise description of the moment when the antahkarana (the felt, feeling mind) has itself become an object of witnessing rather than the seat of witnessing. It’s a real and significant shift, not merely a report of emotional flatness.

The purity-of-being clause — and a caution worth naming

Your “fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree” point is essentially the guna doctrine restated: the quality of what arises in the mind-field is a direct function of which guna — sattva, rajas, tamas — predominates in the substrate. This is standard and sound. But I’d flag one thing for the sake of the intellectual honesty you value: the feeling that one’s emotions have become unreal is not, by itself, proof of increased purity. It can also be a symptom of ordinary psychological withdrawal or numbing — what contemporary language calls dissociation, and what even Ramana and Nisargadatta were careful to distinguish from genuine vairagya. Nisargadatta in particular warned seekers against mistaking a lull in feeling for the cessation of the ego; he called it a phase to be watched, not enshrined. The tell, in the tradition’s own terms, is exactly what you name in your next line — whether what remains, or arises, is compassion, or whether it’s simply absence. If the loosening resolves into indifference rather than into karuna, that’s worth a second look, not a celebration.

Why compassion is the necessary residue, not an added virtue

This is the strongest move in the piece and worth expanding. You’re not saying purity produces compassion as one quality among others it might produce — you’re saying compassion is what feeling looks like once it’s no longer being organized around a center. That’s an important distinction. Ordinary emotion is centripetal: it organizes itself around “what does this mean for me.” When the ego-reference point weakens, feeling doesn’t disappear — it loses its organizing center and so ceases to discriminate. What’s left, structurally, can only be something that doesn’t ask “mine or not mine” — which is compassion. This is also why the Mahayana Buddhist tradition pairs karuna with prajna as the two wings of one bird rather than as two separate achievements: real wisdom that doesn’t issue in compassion is suspect as wisdom, on their reading too, for the same structural reason.

On the Gita citation

Worth being precise about samadarshinaha here, because it’s easy to flatten into a sentimental “love everyone equally” reading, which is not what the verse is doing. The equal vision of the Brahmin and the outcaste, the cow and the dog, isn’t an emotional accomplishment — it’s a perceptual one. It says the wise see the same one thing (Brahman/Atman) present without differentiation across all these forms, and compassion is the natural behavior of someone whose actual perception has changed, not a moral overlay applied on top of unchanged perception. That’s consistent with your closing claim that compassion “equates to” wisdom rather than merely accompanying it — they’re the same event seen from two sides, affective and cognitive.

One thing you might consider adding, if you want to preempt a reader’s misreading: a line distinguishing this universal compassion from mere emotional expansiveness or generic “unconditional love,” since readers often collapse the two. Your piece already implies the distinction (compassion arises from purity, not from cultivated sentiment) — making it explicit might close a gap some readers will otherwise walk through.

A quotation from Montesquieu

If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.
 
[Si on ne vouloit qu’être heureux, cela seroit bientôt fait; mais on veut être plus heureux que les autres; et cela est presque toujours difficile, parce que nous croyons les autres plus heureux qu’ils ne sont.]

Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Pensées Diverses [Assorted Thoughts], # 978 / 1003 (1720-1755)

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montesquieu/2896/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montesquieu #comparison #competition #ego #envy #happiness #jealousy #others #perspective #selfaggrandizement #selfsabotage #selfishness

Jamelle Bouie: "Sunday’s UFC fight is not just a garish spectacle; it is an expression of Pres. Trump’s contempt for the ritual and symbolism of American democracy — which is just another way to say, his contempt for democracy itself."
#selfishness #UltimateFightingChampionship #politics

Pope Leo XIV addresses difficult questions about selfishness, suicide and forgiveness

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://interaksyon.philstar.com/trends-spotlights/2026/06/11/314806/pope-leo-xiv-addresses-difficult-questions-about-selfishness-suicide-and-forgiveness/

Happy Weekend! The latest installment of the Psalms Project is out. This one is about "dying" to self, and letting go of some of our selfishness. While not very popular, it is often necessary in all of us to varying degrees. Next week, a new series kicks off: Intention. Response. Action. #AlignWIthLove #Love #Philosophy #SocialMedia #Psalms #Bible #Weekend #Death #Selfishness

https://align-with-love.com/2026/06/05/the-psalms-project-continued-4/

A quotation from Basil the Great

You seem to have great possessions! How else can this be, but that you have preferred your own enjoyment to the consolation of the many? For the more you abound in wealth, the more you lack in love.
 
[ἀλλὰ μὴν φαίνῃ ἔχων κτήματα πολλά. Πόθεν ταῦτα; ἢ δῆλον ὅτι τὴν οἰκείαν ἀπόλαυσιν προτι μοτέραν τῆς τῶν πολλῶν παραμυθίας ποιούμενος. Ὅσον οὖν πλεονάζεις τῷ πλούτῳ, τοσοῦτον ἐλλείπεις τῇ ἀγάπῃ.]

Basil of Caesarea (AD 330-378) Christian bishop, theologian, monasticist, Doctor of the Church [Saint Basil the Great, Ἅγιος Βασίλειος ὁ Μέγας]
Sermon (368 ca.), "To the Rich [Ὁμιλία πρὸς τοὺς πλουτούντας]" [tr. Schroeder (2009)]

More about this quote: wist.info/basil-of-caesarea/70…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #basilthegreat #saintbasil #charity #love #possessions #rich #riches #selfindulgence #selfishness #wealth #wealthy #misanthropy #enjoyment #pleasure

"Trump cares about a UFC fight and his ballroom. Not about you":
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/05/31/trump-250-ufc-fight-ballroom-midterms/90295440007/?tbref=hp
#politics #priorities #selfishness

"Former Pres. Biden is suing the U.S. Department of Justice in an attempt to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of private conversations with ‌his biographer. The recordings from 2016 and 2017 formed a key part of special counsel Robert Hur's investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents":
https://www.axios.com/2026/05/27/biden-lawsuit-doj-release-audio-recordings-block-attempt #selfishness #embarrassment

John Harwood: "Pres. Trump does not care even a little bit about
our allies, our values, or our national honor."
#greed #selfishness #disloyalty #PutinsPuppet

Jonathan Lemire: "Trump has treated the public’s economic well-being as an afterthought. The thing he admitted so casually is the primary reason his popularity has cratered. Trump was elected to tackle inflation, and he instead has made it worse.”
#politics #Trump #selfishness #greed

Was reading a book and stumbled upon this quote, decided to add my insight.

#usenickunleashed #selflessness #selfishness #ego #philosophy #psychology

MAKE IT MAKE FUCKING SENSE

I, who know perfectly well I am not capable of caring for children, choose not to have children. "Passing on" my mental illness / disorders (like autism) isn't even a consideration - if I could care for a child, I would care for them, NO MATTER WHAT - but I do not have the stamina or energy or emotional resources or capacity or any other fucking thing in sufficient amounts to raise even the most normal, "easy" child - SO I DO NOT HAVE CHILDREN.
AND SOMEHOW THAT'S A "BAD" THING.

But over here, you have severely mentally ill people AND/OR severely cruel and vicious and dangerous people who have caused SO MUCH HARM to other adults in their lives - never mind children - who are SO FUCKING DESPERATE to pass on their genetic material that they are undergoing FERTILITY TREATMENTS. And successfully getting pregnant.
And THAT is somehow a "good thing."

I could just vomit fire.

A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson

An unconscious, easy, selfish person shocks less, and is more easily loved, than one who is laboriously and egotistically unselfish. There is at least no fuss about the first; but the other parades his sacrifices, and so sells his favours too dear.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1880-01/02?), “Reflections and Remarks on Human Life,” § 5 “Selfishness and Egoism”

More about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertlouisstevenson #ego #egotism #fuss #martyr #ostentation #pride #sacrifice #saint #selfcenteredness #selfishness #unselfishness

#meme #love #humanity #selfishness

Hey, wanna play game? "YES!" It's about voting... "Er.." There's also reading to do... "..." Hello? #VeilOfIgnorance #JohnRawls #GameDev #Unity #Elections #Voting #Politics #Selfishness #Selflessness

VOTING THROUGH THE VEIL

🧐The myriad problems discussed herein wrt #Singapore folks managing their #private #properties cld be boiled down to 1 underlying cause, if one cld be brutally honest, & tt's #selfishness driven by a lack of social cohesion (or worse, #social #responsibility). Why? It needs more attention fr sociologists.👇

Managing million-dollar sinking funds, costly repairs: Do #condo councils need mandatory training?🤔
"residents may join councils bec they've a personal agenda, an ego"
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/condo-councils-sinking-funds-training-members-bca-6025621

A quotation from Brecht

They say to me: Eat and drink! Be glad you have it!
But how can I eat and drink if
I snatch what I eat from the starving, and
My glass of water belongs to one dying of thirst?
And yet I eat and drink.
 
[Man sagt mir: Iß und trink du! Sei froh, daß du hast!
Aber wie kann ich essen und trinken, wenn
Ich dem Hungernden entreiße, was ich esse, und
Mein Glas Wasser einem Verdursteten fehlt?
Und doch esse und trinke ich.]

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German poet, playwright, director, dramaturgist
Poem (1938 ca.), “To Those Born Later [A die Nachgeborenen],” sec. 1, Svendborger Gedichte (1939) [tr. Willet / Manheim / Fried]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/brecht-berthold/8320…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #brecht #bertholtbrecht #compassion #control #drink #food #hunger #poverty #selfishness #starvation #thirst #water

A quotation from Montesquieu

When virtue is banished, ambition invades the hearts of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community.
 
[Lorsque cette vertu cesse, l’ambition entre dans les cœurs qui peuvent la recevoir, & l’avarice entre dans tous.]

Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 3, ch. 3 (3.3) (1748) [tr. Nugent (1750)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montesquieu/82760/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montesquieu #ambition #avarice #civicvirtue #community #democracy #equality #greed #nation #patriotism #politicalvirtue #republic #selfcenteredness #selfishness #virtue

Sari Valton tänäisessä ohjelmassa oli kriittistä puhetta itsekkyyden ajasta ja yksilökeskeisestä kulttuurista, ja peräänkuulutettiin hyveitä väljähtymis-alttiin arvopuheen sijaan, https://areena.yle.fi/1-77184233

Keitä oli vieraina, selviää ohjelmatiedosta. Itse olen alkanut vierastaa sellaistakin kehystämistä, koska se helposti ennakko-turhentaa mahdollista antia. Joskus tuntuu, että kiireisenä nykyaikana lähteet alkavat helposti painaa asiaa enemmän, positiivisesti tai negatiivisesti. Kyseessä on eräänlainen ad hominem -(virhe)päättely, jota voisi karttaa.

#yle #radio #sariValto #itsekkyys #selfishness #etiikka #hyveet #virtues #arvot #values #lapset #childhood #adHominem #reasoning #kulttuuri #culture #filosofia #psykologia #sosiaaliPsykologia #sosiologia

A quotation from La Rochefoucauld

Self-interest will set all sorts of virtues and vices in motion.
 
[L’intérêt met en œuvre toutes sortes de vertus et de vices.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶253 (1665-1678) [tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/la-rochefoucauld-fra…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #larochefoucauld #enlightenedselfinterest #interest #motivation #selfinterest #selfserving #selfishness #vice #virtue