You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavour to persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger, security for happiness.
Unselfishness is a rare virtue, cause it just don’t pay.[Die Selbstlosigkeit ist eine seltene Tugend, weil sie sich nicht rentiert.]
There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.
Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure.
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either.
Next to the very young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.
Love is the most selfish of all the passions.
I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.
Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.