71 Quotes About Selfishness

The man who is out to possess his possessions will soon discover that there is no easy way to victory. The highest values in life must be fought for and won.

God loves us too much to indulge our every whim.

Love is the doorway through which the human soul passes from selfishness to service.

The greatest mistake any Christian can make is to substitute his own will for the will of God.

More than once Jesus deliberately addressed certain issues that quickly diminished the number of onlookers. It was commitment that thinned the ranks.

To choose a career on selfish grounds is probably the greatest single sin that any young person can commit, for it is the deliberate withdrawal from allegiance to God of the greatest part of time and strength.

That fierce imprisonment in the self is but the obverse of the self-giving which is absolute reality.

When you live to please yourself, circumstances that God designs to teach you to trust and obey Him instead become temptations for you to fear and worry.

What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.

However sweet the word may sound, any sectarian boasting is but the babbling of a babe. The divisions in the church are due to no other cause than to lack of love and walking after the flesh.

Self is the great antichrist and anti-God in the world, that sets up itself above all else.

If your prayer is selfish, the answer will be something that will rebuke your selfishness. You may not recognize it as having come at all, but it is sure to be there.

Selfishness is never so exquisitely selfish as when it is on its knees. ... Self turns what would otherwise be a pure and powerful prayer into a weak and ineffective one.

We do not fool Him by saying we want something for His glory when secretly our motivations are selfish. We do not fool Him by saying we believe He can work miracles when inwardly we doubt He will follow through.

When we receive from God and hold on to what we have received selfishly, we die spiritually.

Nothing harms or destroys us but the wrong use of that liberty of choice which God has entrusted to us.

Self is the root, the tree, and the branches of all the evils of our fallen state.

Nothing is eternal but that which is done for God and others. That which is done for self dies.

Abide in Jesus, the sinless One - which means, give up all of self and its life, and dwell in God's will and rest in His strength. This is what brings the power that does not commit sin.

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.

Deliver me, O Lord, from that evil man, myself.

Our own interests are still an exquisite means for dazzling our eyes agreeably.

As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.

Let this be thy whole Endeavour, this thy prayer, this thy desire, that thou mayest be stripped of all selfishness, and with entire simplicity follow Jesus only.

There are many seasons in a man's life - and the more exalted and responsible his position, the more frequently do these season's recur - when the voice of duty and the dictates of feeling are opposed to each other; and it is only the weak and the wicked who yield that obedience to the selfish impulses of the heart which is due to reason and honor.

Supreme and abiding self-love is a very dwarfish affection, but a giant evil.

Any desire for promotion, pleasure, riches, or fame will quickly make one a servant of The Beast. And, I'm afraid, that is exactly what many of today's pastors and preachers have become.

There is nothing in this world so empty as getting what you want.

Selfishness has never been admired.

The heart of man is a short word, a small substance, scarce enough to give a kite a meal, yet great in capacity; yea, so indefinite in desire that the round globe of the world cannot fill the three corners of it. When it desires more and cries, "Give, give," I will set it over to the infinite good, where the more it hath, it may desire more, and see more to be desired.

The average person who claims to believe in God (as does the vast majority in America) is too preoccupied with himself to give God much time or serious thought.

I feel now, that Arabia could easily be evangelized within the next thirty years if it were not for the wicked selfishness of Christians.

What could begin to deny self, if there were not something in man different from self?

How could we enjoy heaven if during our lifetime we had used most of our time, treasure, and talents for ourselves and our select group?

Selfishness is that detestable vice which no one will forgive in others, and no one is without himself.

The flesh makes self the center and elevates self-will above God's will. It may serve God, but always according to its idea, not according to God's. It will do what is good in its own eyes. Self is the principle behind every action.

A man is hindered and distracted in proportion as he draws outward things to himself.

Our infinite obligations to God do not fill our hearts half as much as a petty uneasiness of our own; nor his infinite perfections as much as our smallest wants.

Self-will so ardent and active that it will break a world to pieces to make a stool to sit on.

He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

Our society is filled with runaways, dropouts, and quitters. The epidemic of walking away has hit our land with effects as devastating as the bubonic plague, and it has destroyed millions of effective lives and relationships. We are so self-centered that we have ceased to lay down our lives for others. We have seen others faint or walk away and we have followed in their weakness. We have fainted when we could have persevered by exchanging our strength for His! With His strength, not only could we have kept on walking, we could have run!

In so obeying Christ as to disregard his natural affection, a believer's natural love suffers intensely. Such sorrow and pain becomes a practical cross to him. Deep are the heart wounds and many are the tears when one has to forfeit the one he loves.

Law represents the effort of man to organize society; governments, the efforts of selfishness to overthrow liberty.

Inordinate desires commonly produce irregular endeavors. If our wishes be not kept in submission to God's providence, our pursuits will scarcely be kept under the restraints of his precepts.

Abide in Jesus, the sinless One - which means, give up all of self and its life, and dwell in God's will and rest in His strength. This is what brings the power that does not commit sin.

When we believe that we ought to be satisfied, rather than God glorified, we set God below ourselves, imagine that He should submit His own honor to our advantage; we make ourselves more glorious than God, as though we were not made for Him, but He made for us; this is to have a very low esteem of the majesty of God.

Abide in Jesus, the sinless One - which means, give up all of self and its life, and dwell in God's will and rest in His strength. This is what brings the power that does not commit sin.

God wills for us to be attached to nothing aside from Him, whether it be man or a thing or even something conferred on us by Himself.

If I live for self, I can only live for one; if I live for others, I can live for 3,000,000,000.

The difference between the good which proceeds from the flesh and the good which flows from the new life is that the flesh always has self at its center.