Top 105 Altruistic Quotes & Sayings

It is possible to call God 'Lord,' to feel emotionally connected to faith, to do the altruistic things and still not want God.

Any altruistic system is inherently unstable, because it is open to abuse by selfish individuals, ready to exploit it.

Selfish genes actually explain altruistic individuals, and to me that's crystal-clear.

If schooling becomes little more than preparation for the job market and consumption, it cannot produce socially responsible and altruistic citizens.

I now believe in God for my own ends. I'm not an altruistic Christian - I'm only doing it in case there is in fact a Heaven.

People who give money in large amount in politics are basically not altruistic. They have some issue. They have some interest. It may be world peace. It may be preserving carried interest. But it's not altruistic.

The United States doesn't do what it does in the world for altruistic reasons. Nobody set out to be the world's government.

People who give money in large amount in politics are basically not altruistic.

I say you don't need religion, or political ideology, to understand human nature. Science reveals that human nature is greedy and selfish, altruistic and helpful.

The government must adopt a rights-based approach that speaks to the needs and aspirations of surrogate mothers, children born out of surrogacy, and all individuals who want access to altruistic surrogacy services.

The problem with comedy audiences - it's like the Coliseum - when they see someone struggling, they don't feel altruistic towards them. They feel slightly repulsed by it.

The hospitable instinct is not wholly altruistic. There is pride and egoism mixed up with it.

I don't deny the importance of genetics. However, the fact that I might be altruistic isn't because I have a gene for altruism; the fact that I do something for my children at some cost to myself comes from a history that has operated on me.

Much like the leaders of some European countries, Democrats believe that the more immigrants a country takes in, the better off that country becomes and the more altruistic it appears.

Gorillas are almost altruistic in nature. There's very little if any 'me-itis.' When I get back to civilization, I'm always appalled by 'me, me, me.'

Every action that we take has some motivation of either being selfish or altruistic. All that adds up.

In fact, if you think hard about it, animal conservation should actually be anathema to the Darwin-loving liberal agenda, which holds up evolution - and not altruistic compassion - as the final word on the survival of a species.

There is nothing selfish about enjoying yourself. In fact, as wise people have long said and psychologists have since discovered, happiness makes people less self-focused and more altruistic.

Humans can be the most affectionate and altruistic of creatures, yet they're potentially more vicious than any other. They are the only ones who can be persuaded to hate millions of their own kind whom they have never seen and to kill as many as they can lay their hands on in the name of their tribe or their God.

Purely altruistic behavior is pretty much impossible because of the selfish pleasures we derive from it.

Whether you're saying 'thank you' to friends, family members, customers, or a hiring manager who interviewed you for a job, the case in favor of gratitude is both altruistic and pragmatic.

There are some things we do because we convince ourselves it would be better for everyone involved. We tell ourselves that it's the right thing to do, the altruistic thing to do. It's far easier than telling ourselves the truth.

Taking faith seriously leads to the utility of altruistic behavior.

The West is anything but altruistic.

Wars are never fought for altruistic reasons.

Successful givers secure their oxygen masks before coming to the assistance of others. Although their motives may be less purely altruistic, their actions prove more altruistic, because they give more.

Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equalled the carnage perpetrated by disciples of altruism.

Too many members of the U.N. benefit from the status quo and won't make decisions for purely altruistic reasons.

I can think of no other edifice constructed by man as altruistic as a lighthouse. They were built only to serve.

I had hoped to hear everyone discussing how much they missed my altruistic qualities, my legendary skills as a fighter and as a lover." He leered. "Instead, you're making plans for tomorrow. Interesting how life goes on in spite of itself.

Be different, be altruistic. Be strange, work for others in response to their harm. Raise eyebrows, be generous without agenda.

One of the things I realized... is how few success stories there are in websites or products or businesses that exist primarily for an altruistic purpose.

There are a few exceptions, however, to this rule that our projection of ourselves is lower than the facts of Nature, and the unicorn — noble, chaste, fierce yet beneficent, altruistic though solitary, strangely beautiful — is the clearest exception of all.

Either the conscious intellect is impotent, or is not sufficiently strong, or is not the factor positively connected with altruistic phenomenon generally or their sublime form particularly.

I'm inspired by good work. Whether it is a great performance by another actor, a piece of art, or someone doing something altruistic.

If the Olympic Games ever served a true altruistic purpose, they have long since outlived it. Yeah, the pursuit of athletic excellence, sportsmanship and international goodwill is plenty noble. But the modern Olympics are at best a vehicle for agitprop; at worst, a scandal magnet.

Most political leaders acquire their position by causing large numbers of people to believe that these leaders are actuated by altruistic desires

I'm not totally altruistic. I've always had great career ambitions. But it has to come out in an organic way. If you push yourself out beyond where you are supposed to be, there's this pressure.

We fail to reckon with the reality of human nature. By nature,we are egocentric. Our world revolves around us. None of us is totally altruistic.

Selfishness beats altruism within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups. Everything else is commentary.

It is true that food banks are a sign that the British retain their altruistic instincts. I support my local food banks whenever and however I can. But I am deeply concerned about their normalisation.

The event of falling in love... in one high bound it has overleaped the massive wall of our selfhood; it has made appetite itself altruistic, tossed personal happiness aside as a triviality and planted the interests of another in the centre of our being.

We benefit from doing nothing, from going out to play, from giving from the heart and spending time in nature. Most of all we benefit from having healthy, strong, and loving relationships with other people and from exercising the altruistic parts of ourselves.

... the cooperative forces are biologically the more important and vital. The balance between the cooperative and altruistic tendencies and those which are disoperative and egoistic is relatively close. Under many conditions the cooperative forces lose, In the long run, however, the group centered, more altruistic drives are slightly stronger. ... human altruistic drives are as firmly based on an animal ancestry as is man himself. Our tendencies toward goodness... are as innate as our tendencies toward intelligence; we could do well with more of both.

There're the causes where people are like, "What can you do for us? You guys have success and stature; you can make money for us and at the same time present yourselves to the public as altruistic and civic-minded." So it's an exchange. I don't mind looking altruistic and civic-minded if we're actually being that way.

To forgive is not just to be altruistic.

If tempted by something that feels 'altruistic,' examine your motives and root out that self-deception. Then, if you still want to do it, wallow in it!

Wars are never fought for altruistic reasons. They're usually fought for hegemony, for business. And then of course there's the business of war.

When it comes to vampires, Daniel Gillies's Elijah is the cream of the crop. Since leaving 'The Vampire Diaries' to headline 'The Originals,' we've seen the brother of Klaus grow from the altruistic, steadfast, suit-wearing stud into a complicated, nuanced lead.

Elephants have the largest brains of any mammal on the face of the Earth. They are creative, altruistic and kind.

As soon as I wake up I pay homage to the Buddha, and I try to prepare my mind to be more altruistic, more compassionate, during the day to come so I can be of benefit to beings. Then I do physical exersice - I walk on a treadmill.

With our brains and our smarts and our altruistic capability, we can do a lot of good.

Being generous is inborn; being altruistic is a learned perversity. No resemblance --

'The Portrait of Dorian Grey' beautifully articulates how the altruistic part of ourselves clashes with our essentially narcissistic state.

At the basis of a country's immigration policy is the recognition that a country has the right to pursue its interests first, and whenever it wishes to be altruistic and humane, this is instantiated without ever risking the danger of its citizens and/or its cultural values.

The great majority of people are calm, resourceful, altruistic or even beyond altruistic, as they risk themselves for others. We improvise the conditions of survival beautifully.

I think it's really easy to be the altruistic hero of your own narrative and story.

While profit remains the final goal, entrepreneurs spend the better part of each day figuring out how better to serve the needs of their actual and potential customers. They are operationally, if not intentionally, altruistic.

The most altruistic and sustainable philosophies fail before the brute brain stem imperative of self-interest.

Gorillas are almost altruistic in nature. There's very little if any 'me-itis.' When I get back to civilization I'm always appalled by 'me, me, me.'