Best 236 quotes in «altruism quotes» category

The first stage of ignorance is illusion, due to lack of exposure to reality. The second stage of ignorance is delusion, or the refusal to acknowledge reality. The third stage of ignorance is the rejection of altruism.

The greatest sacrifice a man can make is the image of his soul.

The good shall prevail in the end, the truth shall be the rule and the Cameroonian soul shall be free,” Hans said in an emotion-choked voice, “However, we should never lose our heads; we should always be prepared to forgive all the repentant souls.

The good which every man, who follows after virtue, desires for himself he will also desire for other men...

The only thing I hate about good people is that they like making their being good people bad people’s problem.

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness... & ... Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative. –

The optimist sees the glass as half full, the pessimist as half empty. What I see is water that can save someone's life.

The people are like an audience watching a drama. They have characters whose sides they chose even before the start of the show, but they know little or nothing about the people behind the stage―the manipulators.

The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life – the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.

The people’s hero does not only have to be someone in possession of the scepter of power. It can be anyone capable of giving unity, prosperity, security, peace and a sense of worthiness to his people. Such a figure gets elevated to the status of a revered hero with the human touch if he imparts a sense of oneness on a multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious group; especially a diverse people who have been fighting one another for years and centuries...

The pleasure or the benefit that the object of our deed derives from it is every now and then greater or even more important than the one we derive from the deed.

The poor, the illiterate, the helpless, the distressed — let these be your God.

The purpose of life is to nurture joy, which involves those aspects of humanity that enrich the soul.

There are altruistic acts, but no altruistic thoughts.

There are people who bring joy to our lives, but who fail to make us happy. They are the people for the moment. Never rely on their love because it is not sustainable. Their love is alike a comet that illuminates the sky, but then fades away because it lacks the sustainable energy of the sun.

The person who works for recognition devalues the work he does, that awards are first and foremost political instruments, that altruism's true name is always Anonymous.

There is no such thing as selflessness. There are only fair and unfair selfishness.

There is no bigger gratification than the realization of the things you believe in after overcoming all the odds.

...There is no greater dividing force in this world than self-interest...

The scrupulous survivors in life are the best counterweight to unscrupulous survivors.

The Romans construed Jesus Chris’s crucifixion as a defeat, but what do we have today? Christianity triumphed. Jesus Christ never betrayed himself, he never betrayed his mission and he never corrupted the ideas that God wants us to live by. The Cameroonian soul is genuine. It is noble, and it embodies humaneness. There is no reason to try to kill it because it will triumph ultimately.

The strangest of all the doctrines of the cult of competition, in which admittedly there must be losers as well as winners, is that the result of competition is inevitably good for everybody, that altruistic ends may be met by a system without altruistic motives or altruistic means.

The term altruism indicates a separation between an observer of altruism and a practitioner of altruism. And so long as there prevails this separation, this duality between the observer and the observed, real action will always remain a theory for the majority of the human population. So, right now, with the plain ordinary awareness of the harms of separation, destroy the duality that prevails within you, which separates your being from real action. And the moment you do so, piety and progress will automatically begin to rush through your veins out into the world, like the water that begins to flow, once you turn the faucet on.

…the truest feeling of happiness is the security that comes with being loved.

The way people behave depends on the basic moral tests and norms in a society. Naturally, the Khmer Rouge, Al-Qaeda terrorists, respectable middle-class Europeans, and, say, members of the Komosol in the 1930's, would behave quite differently in identical situations. But that wouldn't change the essential point. The ration of altruists and egoists, even among Benedictine monks and members of the Gestapo, is the same. It's just that their altruism and egotism are expressed differently.

Time alone can nourish or erode our emotions.

Today. the celebration is for the "victorious", not the meritorious. The depiction to the youth, is that one can be victorious without merit, and that merit is less notable than victory. The result, is the masses are selectively and passively affirming that winning trumps hard work, that theft trumps the pride of ownership, and that personal success trumps collective progress.

To live for others was to live fully; to live only for yourself, a cold kind of death.

Traumatic events destroy the sustaining bonds between individual and community. Those who have survived learn that their sense of self, of worth, of humanity, depends upon a feeling of connection with others. The solidarity of a group provides the strongest protection against terror and despair, and the strongest antidote to traumatic experience. Trauma isolates; the group re-creates a sense of belonging. Trauma shames and stigmatizes; the group bears witness and affirms. Trauma degrades the victim; the group exalts her. Trauma dehumanizes the victim; the group restores her humanity. Repeatedly in the testimony of survivors there comes a moment when a sense of connection is restored by another person’s unaffected display of generosity. Something in herself that the victim believes to be irretrievably destroyed---faith, decency, courage---is reawakened by an example of common altruism. Mirrored in the actions of others, the survivor recognizes and reclaims a lost part of herself. At that moment, the survivor begins to rejoin the human commonality...

...True classical dropouts in society are those who avoid difficult challenges and cling to the first opportunity that comes their way. They never test their talents. These latent talents will only help to produce the next cycle of dropouts...

True heroes don't fall. They only encounter temporary setbacks as they forge ahead towards progress.

True heroes and ideas never fall in the final sense of the word. They can only encounter temporary setbacks in their difficult journey to progress and success,

Trying to help is at best useless and at worst damaging; but to stop trying to help is to give up on humanity. Humanitarians are condescending hypocrites, but they are the best of us.

We always emerge from the death of a loved one like a phoenix arising from its funeral pyre.

We are, or rather our natural desire to evade pain and to attain pleasure is, the primary reason we do or say every single thing we do or say.

We are truly human when we live for a purpose far above ourselves; but most people prefer to identify with an entity for the sake of belonging; thereby subjecting themselves to the spirit of collective selfishness that is only found in groups.

we can learn a lot from a tree; she gives so much without expecting anything in return. oxygen, shade, fruit, resources. she is proud of her roots and tough to tear down. try to be more like a tree. give without expectations, be proud, be strong.

We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.

...We find our greatest peace when we embrace something that gives meaning to our lives. Often, it is love for somebody or something we can give up our lives for, or somebody or something that we are sure will never betray us. That love could be for a partner, for our offspring, for a country or for a belief...

We, humans, have come up with so many superficialities that are completely unnecessary for our existence and happiness on earth.

We need the wisdom to accept the fact that this world abounds with issues we cannot solve; and we need to part ways with those people, ideas and things that are a vexation to the soul.

There is nothing more rewarding than being a real-life hero… Everyone can and should be one! People just have to be aware of their superpowers; everyone has at least one!

The ultimate altruism is nothing but the sacrifice of one’s self for the benefit of others. Love yourself but never forget to be altruistic to others in need.

The writer has to die to give birth to the intellectual in the service of the wretched of the earth.

To open eyes when others close them To hear when others do not wish to listen To look when others turn away To seek to understand when others give up To rouse oneself when others accept To continue to struggle when one is not the strongest To cry out when others keep silent…

Violence is as much a part of what is means to be poor as being hungry, sick, homeless, or jobless. In fact, as we shall see, violence is frequently the problem that poor people are most concerned about. It is one of the core reasons they are poor in the first place, and one of the primary reasons they stay poor. Indeed, we will simply never be able to win the battle against extreme poverty unless we address it.

We deny the fact that people get into or remain in our lives mainly for selfish reasons mainly for a selfish reason, namely, to protect our cherished belief that we are special.

We have power as consumers. We can exercise that power all the time by not choosing to invest time, energy or funds to support the production of mass media images that do not reflect life-enhancing values, that undermine a love ethic.

We love out of compassion, passion or a sense of commitment.

We still need to give our best to life even if we do not understand the purpose of our existence on earth.