A Quote by Thomas Sowell

Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest. — © Thomas Sowell
Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest.
Inflammatory passion and selfish interest characterizes most men, whereas ambition characterizes men who pursue and hold national office. Such men rise from the people through a process of self-selection, since politics is a dirty business that discourages all but the most ambitious.
No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity.
It is important that when pursing our own self-interest we should be 'wise selfish' and not 'foolish selfish'. Being foolish selfish means pursuing our own interests in a narrow, shortsighted way. Being wise selfish means taking a broader view and recognizing that our own long-term individual interest lies in the welfare of everyone. Being wise selfish means being compassionate.
I've always been antagonistic to any naïve application of the selfish gene theory to politics. Some people have attempted to suggest that it means we are selfish or we should be selfish.
The world is a king, and like a king, desires flattery in return for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse — it will not submit to the mold of flattery.
All of us would like to have our children and their grandchildren grow up with at least the level of prosperity that we had. In the U.S., we seem to be very selfish because the older generation is not making the sacrifices.
The attempt to divide art and politics is a bourgeois which says good poetry, art, cannot be political, but since everything is … political, even an artist or work that claims not to have any politics is making a political statement by that act.
Governments do not necessarily act in the national interest, especially when making detailed microeconomic interventions. Instead, they are influenced by interest group pressures. The kinds of interventions that new trade theory suggests can raise national income will typically raise the welfare of small, fortunate groups by large amounts, while imposing costs on larger, more diffuse groups.
Trust yourself, your intuition, your desires and your pursuits. Don't question yourself too much. Place one foot ahead of the other and go forward steadily. No one will understand as you do the work, the art, you are making - so no need to look for audience approval or ratings.
We shouldn't be thinking about individuals or departments. We should be thinking about national interest. Lifting the standard of Pakistan squash is like working towards national interest.
I didn't want to make 'high' art, I had no interest in using paint, I wanted to find something that anyone could relate to without knowing about contemporary art. I wasn't thinking in terms of precious prints or archival quality; I didn't want the work to seem like a commodity.
To the question, ‘Is the cinema an art?’ my answer is, ‘what does it matter?’... You can make films or you can cultivate a garden. Both have as much claim to being called an art as a poem by Verlaine or a painting by Delacroix… Art is ‘making.’ The art of poetry is the art of making poetry. The art of love is the art of making love... My father never talked to me about art. He could not bear the word.
President Putin and President Trump are very much alike in their basic approach to international relations.They both insist on their priority as national interest. And they both understand pretty well that sometimes it is in your national interest to conduct good relationship with your counterpart, ensuring that those relationships are mutually beneficial and ensuring that - that you are really ready to take into account each other's concern.
Spend time cultivating your deepest desires, no matter how impractical or impossible they seem. It's perfectly OK to want the impossible. It's not OK to pretend that your desires don't matter.
National interest is above anything else. Just because you sit in an air-conditioned room, you can say you shouldn't relate cricket and movies to politics. Ask anyone who has lost a family member to terror attacks, and you will get your answer.
On healthcare, climate change, nuclear disarmament, gun control and countless other issues, President Obama consistently made difficult choices and put the national interest over his own political interest to do what was right. All the while, he resisted the politics of cynicism in a system that too often encourages it.
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