42 Quotes About Greed and Selfishness

Selfishness is not always a negative trait. To some, it can mean feeling good and staying in the net positive. These quotes about greed and selfishness are inspiring to follow.

“A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor’s.”

“All suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their own happiness or satisfaction.”

“Any success you have is despite your lack of giving, not because of it.”

“But at a certain point, and I don’t really know… people have asked me this. I don’t know exactly what it was that pushed me towards directing, but I think it was a naive notion that if I directed I would be able to play all the roles. A kind of greed.”

“Calm self-confidence is as far from conceit as the desire to earn a decent living is remote from greed.”

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”

“Education has now become the chief problem of the world, its one holy cause. The nations that see this will survive, and those that fail to do so will slowly perish.”

“Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.”

“Even the most beautiful scenery is no longer assured of our love after we have lived in it for three months, and some distant coast attracts our avarice: possessions are generally diminished by possession.”

“From the first day to this, sheer greed was the driving spirit of civilization.”

“Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I’m lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home.”

“Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.”

“Greed is an imperfection that defiles the mind; hate is an imperfection that defiles the mind; delusion is an imperfection that defiles the mind.”

“I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction.”

“I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.”

“I like to think that my arrogance, impetuosity, impatience, selfishness and greed are the qualities that make me the lovable chap I am.”

“I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.”

“If you can master and destroy them, then will be ready to fight the enemy you can see.”

“If you think of life as like a big pie, you can try to hold the whole pie and kill yourself trying to keep it, or you can slice it up and give some to the people around you, and you still have plenty left for yourself.”

“If your thinking is sloppy, your business will be sloppy. If you are disorganized, your business will be disorganized. If you are greedy, your employees will be greedy, giving you less and less of themselves and always asking for more.”

“It didn´t occur to me until later that there´s another truth, very simple: greed in a good cause is still greed.”

“Landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed.”

“Lust and greed are more gullible than innocence.”

“Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.”

“Many people must be ruled to thrive. In their selfishness and greed, they see free people as their oppressors. They wish to have a leader who will cut the taller plants so the sun will reach them.”

“Money is neither my god nor my devil. It is a form of energy that tends to make us more of who we already are, whether it’s greedy or loving.”

“Selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either.”

“Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our troubles.”

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”

“The age of selfishness and greed is over. The age of kindness and generosity is underway.”

“The only work that will ultimately bring any good to any of us is the work of contributing to the healing of the world.”

“The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good: Greed is right, greed works.”

“The secret of success is to realize that the crisis on our planet is much larger than just deciding what to do with your own life, and if the system under which we live the structure of western civilization begins to collapse because of our selfishness and greed.”

“There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.”

“There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.”

“There will be selfishness and greed and corruption and narrowness and intolerance in the world tomorrow and tomorrow’s tomorrow. But pray God we may have the courage and the wisdom and the vision to raise a definite standard that will appeal to the best that is in man, and then strive mightily toward that goal.”

“This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.”

“Those who do not hate their own selfishness and regard themselves as more important than the rest of the world are blind because the truth lies elsewhere”

“Throughout the 1980s, we did hear too much about individual gain and the ethos of selfishness and greed. We did not hear enough about how to be a good member of a community, to define the common good and to repair the social contract.”

“True happiness comes from having a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved by cultivating altruism, love and compassion, and by eliminating anger, selfishness and greed.”

“We have always known that heedless self interest was bad morals, we now know that it is bad economics.”

“When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.”

Nothing good comes from greed. Being selfless over being selfish provides the better reward.