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Check our thoughtful altruism quotes and sayings from famous personalities, thinkers, and writers, including Ayn Rand, on how to be genuinely selfless.
Altruistic philosophy is a utopian concept that exists with the notion that human beings should put others well being to theirs.
But we all are born with the instinct to be selfish, and it is nearly impossible for anybody to put others’ welfare in place of their ego genuinely.
Who is an Altruistic Person?
Hence Edward Abbey rightly quotes, ‘ charity should be spontaneous. Calculated altruism is an affront.’
Mostly in the name of helping others, we indulge in self-satiated ego trips to look great and boastful in our own eyes.
Actual charity and selfless acts are only possible when an individual is first alright and contented from within.
Wisdom teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti beautifully quotes, ‘ Only when I understand myself, I can understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.’
Rare is an individual who does a random act of kindness genuinely without mental motive and totally from the heart.
Altruism may appeal to a mind that wants to cover up its selfishness.
Hence this world is filled with hatred, racism, animal cruelty, and human-induced climate catastrophe, to name a few.
We hope our handpicked altruism quotes collection is a meaningful read.
Best Altruism Quotes And Sayings
Altruism accrues little benefit to those lying cold in the gutter.
– Raymond E. Feist
Altruism is the best source of happiness. There is no doubt about that.
– Dalai Lama
Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil.
– Robert A. Heinlein
Altruism is a fine motive, but if you want results, greed works much better.
– Henry Spencer
Altruism is a barbarism. Love is the word.
– John Lancaster Spalding
Human altruism which is not egoism, is sterile.
– Marcel Proust
Altruism is a hard master, but so is opportunism.
– Mignon McLaughlin
Altruism is for those who cannot endure their desires.
– Mason Cooley
The most popular form of altruism is giving to others the advice you cannot use yourself.
– Evan Esar
Altruism is masked self-interest. Aggressive self-interest is a masked urge to self-destruction.
– Greg Bear
It often turns out on closer inspection that acts of apparent altruism are really selfishness in disguise.
– Richard Dawkins
Capitalism and altruism are incompatible; they are philosophical opposites; they cannot co-exist in the same man or in the same society.
– Ayn Rand
Altruism has always been one of biology’s deep mysteries. Why should any animal, off on its own, specified and labeled by all sorts of signals as its individual self, choose to give up its life in aid of someone else?
– Lewis Thomas
Altruism declares that any action taken for the benefit of others is good, and any action taken for one’s own benefit is evil. Thus the beneficiary of an action is the only criterion of moral value – and so long as that beneficiary is anybody other than oneself, anything goes.
– Ayn Rand
Altruism does not mean mere kindness or generosity, but the sacrifice of the best among men to the worst, the sacrifice of virtues to flaws, of ability to incompetence, of progress to stagnation-and the subordinating of all life and of all values to the claims of anyone’s suffering.
– Ayn Rand
Effective Altruism Quotes And Sayings
Altruism is one of the most fundamentally social impulses, and doing things for others without expecting anything in return is core to what makes us human. This is why, from the day Facebook Platform launched in 2007, Causes has been honored to be one of the most popular applications, with over 140 million users.
– Joe Greene
A large part of altruism, even when it is perfectly honest, is grounded upon the fact that it is uncomfortable to have unhappy people about one.
– H. L. Mencken
Altruism is a brief phase through which some adolescents must pass. It is rather like acne. Happily, as with acne, only a few are permanently scarred.
– Gore Vidal
There is another kind of altruism that seems to go beyond that, a kind of super-altruism, which humans appear to have. And I think that does need a Darwinian explanation.
– Richard Dawkins
Infinite altruism is the basis of peace and happiness. If you want altruism, you must control hate and you must practice patience. The main teachers of patience are our enemies.
– Dalai Lama
Very usually, altruism is only the sublimest form of selfishness.
– Sri Aurobindo
Anonymity is the truest expression of altruism.
– Eric Gibson
The Way of our Master is none other than conscientiousness of altruism.
– Confucius
The person who works for recognition devalues the work he does…. altruism’s true name is always Anonymous.
– David Marusek
Altruism is but a phantom in our world. Only the most foolish among us would believe that our first priority is not to follow the empirical evidence that leads to one’s own self-preservation!
– Lary A. Sims
Altruism eventuates in all realities, else self-destruction consumes it.
– Guy Lozier
All altruism springs from putting yourself in the other person’s place.
– Harry Emerson Fosdick
The root of happiness is altruism – the wish to be of service to others.
– Dalai Lama
Altruism is an instinct for survival that may be in our genes–an internal force for goodness in everyone that begins with birth.
– James R. Ozinga
Altruism in nature remains an exception. It poses a puzzle, being in prima facie conflict with the survival of the fittest and most selfish.
– Peter Birks
Inspirational Altruism Quotes And Sayings
Altruism is rarer than it should be among leaders, and that’s a shame, because selflessness is key to being aware and avoiding a myopic view of things.
– John Mattone
Charity should be spontaneous. Calculated altruism is an affront.
– Edward Abbey
Altruism is selfishness out with a pair of field glasses and imagination.
– Christina Stead
Altruism is innate, but it’s not instinctual. Everybody’s wired for it, but a switch has to be flipped.
– David Rakoff
Altruism became the sole legitimate motivation for giving a kidney. And it is a partial – I say a partial failure.
– Sally Satel
The altruism of foresters can serve as a motto for humanity in general: We reap what we have not sown. We sow what we do not reap.
– Leo Errera
The practice of altruism is the authentic way to live as a human being, and it is not just for religious people. As human beings, our purpose is to live meaningful lives, to develop a warm heart. There is meaning in being everyone’s friend. The real source of peace amongst our families, friends and neighbours is love and compassion.
– Dalai Lama
Gratitude: An imaginary emotion that rewards an imaginary behavior, altruism. Both imaginaries are false faces for selfishness, which is a real and honest emotion.
– Robert A. Heinlein
Altruism may be … so fundamental, so essential to the survival of human beings that it has taken root in neurocircuitries designed for other purposes, finding its expression in numerous unexpected, but largely successful ways.
– Shelley E. Taylor
Which is more subversive-and corrosive-to believe in altruism or to see it simply as a cloak of self interest? Even if altruism did not exist, it would be necessary to believe in it. Pessimists in power are prone to despotism.
– Frank Prochaska
Altruism always lived in my heart. I knew it was there, I knew it from the start.
– Charmaine J Forde
If you don’t have altruism, inner strength, inner peace, attention, then it’s a trauma. It makes a difficult life for you and for others.
– Matthieu Ricard
Altruism itself depends on a recognition of the reality of other persons, and on the equivalent capacity to regard oneself as merely one individual among many.
– Thomas Nagel
At the core, our motives are always self-serving, Kate. Altruism is a fog created by sly minds seeking to benefit from the energy and skill of others. Nothing more.
– Ilona Andrews
Altruism is written in everlasting and resplendent character on the Cross of Christ, and it was at Calvary that the centre of life was shifted from selfishness to sacrifice.
– Jon Weber
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