c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Unless we recognize a higher power to whom we are responsible and who observes and knows our actions, we will not transcend the selfishness of our character and the subjectivity of our intellect. If each person is the final arbiter of right and wrong, then ‘right’ for him or her will be what he or she desires, regardless of its consequences for the other inhabitants of Earth.
— Daniel Friedmann, Roadmap to the End of Days: Demystifying Biblical Eschatology To Explain The Past, The Secret To The Apocalypse And The End Of The World
Selfishness at the expense of others is bad. Self-care for the betterment of others is good.
— Richie Norton
Loneliness had made the Queen bitter, bitterness had made her selfish, and selfishness had made her suspicious. --The Changeling
— Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden
It’s really good to love yourself, just don’t love yourself so much in a way that you will not be able to see anyone else!
— Raouf Ayoub
when fertility rates began collapsing in the late 1960s, another demographic transition was occurring, the result of a fundamental restructuring: People no longer put children at the center of their lives. Instead, they put themselves there.
— Jonathan V Last
The terrible poverty of pride is that there is nothing that can be taken in selfishness which will exceed what is received when nothing is expected and everything is offered.
— James Castleton, MD, Mending of a Broken Heart
Knowledge is power is time is money. Meaning that if I shared knowledge, it would tantamount to sharing power or money.
— Robert Thier, In the Eye of the Storm
At its core, sinfulness is selfishness. It's enthroning yourself - your desires, your needs, your plans - above all else. You may still seek God, but you don't seek Him first. You seek Him second or third or seventh. You may sing "Jesus at the center of it all," but what you really want is for people to bow down to you as you bow down to Christ. It's a subtle form of selfishness that masquerades as spirituality, but it's not Christ-centric. It's me-centric. It's less about us serving His purposes and more about Him serving our purposes.
— Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life
She [Ayn Rand] had to declare that....altruism was despicable, that only self-interest is good and noble. (About Ayn Rand)
— William F. Buckley Jr.
...For I do now know that it is cowardly. We do not have the right to think only of poetry on this earth. It is magical, but utterly selfish.
— Hélène Berr, The Journal of Hélène Berr
We ignore the Holy Spirit when we position ourselves at the center of life. - From the Book: Removing Your Shame Label.
— Eddie  Capparucci
I was too selfish to have a child before I was ready for one, and there's no shame in admitting that. Women should be selfish about our choices, for as long as we have the privilege of being selfish. Selfishness in women isn't the great crime that people like to pretend it is. We are as entitled as men to prioritise ourselves and our desires, and we are as capable as men of knowing what's best for us. Why is everyone so pathologically terrified of selfish women? The word is thrown around like an insult, as if the worst thing a woman could possibly do (aside from being fat, having sex with whomever she pleases and whenever, swearing, having an abortion, drinking alcohol, standing up for herself and being a working mother) is to decide that her life matters.But women are allowed to be selfish. It shouldn't be considered a 'privilege' to be able to control our own bodies nor should it be treated like a favour done to us by the state. It's a right that, by and large, has been stolen from us and used to keep us in thrall to a paternalistic body that pretends to know what's best for us but is really only interested in maintaining the order that has proved best for them.
— Clementine Ford, Fight Like A Girl
Messages that emphasis on you! You!! Promotes selfishness.
— Sunday Adelaja
We pray to God for ourselves instead of the general good.
— Sunday Adelaja
that is the thing about selfish people. theygamble entire beings. entire souls to please their own. one second they are holding you like the world in their lap and the next they have belittled you to a mere picture. a moment. something of the past. one second. they swallow you up and whisper they want to spend the rest of their life with you. but the moment they sense fear. they are already halfway out the door. without having the nerve to let you go with grace. as if the human heart means that little to them.and after all this. after all of the taking. the nerve. isn't it sad and funny how people have more guts these days to undress you with their fingers than they do pick up the phone and call. apologize. for the loss. and this is how you lose her.- selfish
— Rupi Kaur, Milk and Honey
Of course I love you. It is my fault that you have not known it all the while" (the flower to little prince)
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The instructive admonitions, “give an account of thy stewardship,“—“occupy till I come;” are forgotten. Thus the generous and wakeful spirit of Christian Benevolence, seeking and finding every where occasions for its exercise, is exploded, and a system of decent selfishness is avowedly established in its stead; a system scarcely more to be abjured for its impiety, than to be abhorred for its cold insensibility to the opportunities of diffusing happiness.
— William Wilberforce, A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes in This Country: Contrasted with Real Christianity
Let's be clear: unless I have profoundly misunderstood its position, I pretty much despise American Libertarianism. Have these people seriously looked at the problems of the world and thought, 'Hmm, what we need here is a bit more selfishness'? . . . I beg to differ.
— Iain Banks
If you think that you are proud of yourself,you do not know what you are thinking.P.C.M. HermansWorldpoet 546October 9, 2016
— Petra Hermans
And this is how I come face to face with my selfishness, because I don't know if I can enjoy this goldfish without knowing that he loves me, or if not loves me, then at least depends on me, i.e., swims up to my fingers greedily when I fill them with salty-smelling rainbow-colored flakes, and wiggle them over his head.And this is disturbing to realize, that I have such difficulty enjoying anything that doesn't know I exist. Especially when I stop and think how big the world is, the world that is not even Japan or India, the world that is the room next door.
— Amy Fusselman, The Pharmacist's Mate
What you love is your own love. It's not love, it's selfishness. It's not me you think of, but what you feel about me.
— John Fowles, The Collector
You are not a better or wiser person simply because you’ve ceased to care.
— Clifford Cohen
Pseudo idealism: apparent charitable behaviour that on scrutiny is revealed as selfish, because the giver is engaging in it only so that he or she can feel good about him or herself
— Jeremy Griffith, Freedom: The End of the Human Condition
And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn’t really mean it. But that isn’t true. At the time when it happens you do mean it. You think there’s no other way of saving yourself and you’re quite ready to save yourself that way. You want it to happen to the other person. You don’t give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself.
— George Orwell, 1984
If humans are indeed products of a design, is it not wise to make humans selfish? A selfish person safeguards what’s important to him and never exchanges it to one with a lesser value. If the salvation of his soul is the most important to him, he will do everything to secure it. An unselfish person who values his soul just as much is ready to exchange his salvation for less. They are self-deniers, right?
— H.R.Valderrama
She actually said with an emotion that she seldom let appear, "Let me come with you," and he laughed. He meant yes or no - either perhaps. But it was not his meaning - it was the odd chuckle he gave, as if he had said, Throw yourself over the cliff if you like, I don't care. He turned on her cheek the heat of love, its horror, its cruelty, its unscrupulosity. It scorched her...
— Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
In the age of facebookerism and tweeterism, people have been manipulated to behave foolishly. " Look at me, i am here" culture has thrived.
— kamil Toume
Remember the acorn
— It does not devour other acorns.
She's very selfish. Not exactly self-centered, but totally indifferent to everyone and everything. Don't you agree?' 'I don't think that's possible,' said Mr Satterthwaite, slowly. 'I mean everyone's interest must go somewhere.
— Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Mr. Quin
Did you close that part of your life, Drizzt Do'Urden? And now are you afraid because it might again be opened?"Drizzt shook his head without hesitation, but it was an unconvincing movement. He paused a long while, they sighed deeply. "I am disappointed," the drow admitted. "In myself, for mt selfishness. I want to see Zaknafein again, to stand beside him and learn from him and listen to his words." Drizzt looked up at Cadderly, his expression truly serene. "But I remember the last time I saw him," he said, and he told Cadderly then of that final meeting.
— R.A. Salvatore, Passage to Dawn
Selfish acts will only lead to your own destruction.
— Faith Tigere
She felt the lurch of a head rush. The boy who had not paid attention to her
—  the man who’d embarked on an affair knowing she could never be his
At the end of the day we can’t be that selfish to accept the love they think we deserve.
— Sarvesh Jain, Naked Wisdom of the child
Everyone wants everyone to be perfect for them, but they don't want themselves to be perfect for others...
— Anonymous
Everyone Wants everyone to be perfect for them but they don't wanted to be perfect for others...
— Naveen Kumar
It is a great mistake to suppose that a woman with no heart will be an easy creditor in the exchange of affection. There is not on earth a more merciless extractor of love from others than a thoroughly selfish woman; and the more unlovely she grows, the more jealously and scrupulously she extracts love, to the uttermost farthing.
— Harriet Beecher Stowe
Not all generous hearts are gullible enough to be screwed by cold, calculating, business propaganda. A person who has an eye for what is right and the truth will immediately spot the cunning ways of a selfish "user and hungry grabber" who took initiative to grab the originality from other people they tried to profile, fake befriended and extracted favours." ~ Angelica Hopes, an excerpt from If I Could Tell You
— Angelica Hopes
Selfishness is one of the most destructive forces in man that is why life demands for its death.
— Sunday Adelaja
Sometimes you think you're helping someone up, but they're actually pulling you down. This is the painful dynamic of dealing with someone who is incurably selfish.
— Steve Maraboli
And isn’t that the root of every despicable action? Not selfishness, but precisely the absence of a self. Look at them. The man who cheats and lies, but preserves a respectable front. He knows himself to be dishonest, but others think he’s honest and he derives his self-respect from that, second-hand. The man who takes credit for an achievement which is not his own. He knows himself to be mediocre, but he’s great in the eyes of others. The frustrated wretch who professes love for the inferior and clings to those less endowed, in order to establish his own superiority by comparison.
— Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
In 1948, psychologists asked more than 10,000 adolescents whether they considered themselves to be a very important person. At that point, 12 percent said yes. The same question was asked in 2003, and this time it wasn’t 12 percent who considered themselves very important, it was 80 percent.
— David Brooks
Some people seem to have a black belt in selfishness... ninja narcissists with no regard to how they impact those around them… but at the same time, a master at the art of playing victim.
— Steve Maraboli
Narcissists only play for their own business, whereas Distortionists play with other’s business only to gain personal advantage. If you are both, then you aren’t an entrepreneur.
— Ashish Patel
The goal of marriage is not happiness, it is holiness...There is no mechanism whereby God can sanctify a person more than having them live in close proximity to another imperfect person....Our fundamental problem is that we are selfish. Marriage is the means whereby God eradicates our selfishness because it is not about "me" anymore, i t is about "we.
— Mark Batterson, A Trip Around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life Into the Adventure of a Lifetime
Battles for truth are fought all alone but at the end its a victory for many.
— Amit Abraham
As long as greed is the root of all evil, there will not be peace.Get rid of selfishness and greed too will disappear.
— Zarina Bibi
[S]elfish members win within groups, but groups of altruists best groups of selfish members. (63)
— Edward O. Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence
Selfish people tend to only be good to themselves… then are surprised when they are alone.
— Steve Maraboli
A man's interest in the world is only the overflow from his interest in himself.
— George Bernard Shaw, Heartbreak House
While it lasts, the religion of worshiping oneself is the best.
— C.S. Lewis
It was only that she wanted him to be happy, resenting, however, his inability to be so with things as they were, and never acknowledging that though she did want him to be happy, it was only in her own way and by some plan of hers for him that she truly desired him to be so.
— Nella Larsen
Life is just a big game of Texas hold'em, unexpected things may arise that may suite you or destroy you. You gotta make the best of the cards your dealt, adjust accordingly, and always understand that you control your decisions.
— Mustafa Said
And if redemption was self-serving, coming as it did ribbon-tied to what he wanted most in life? For once, Akiva's shame wouldn't rise to the bait. He wanted what he'd always wanted, and he'd better just say it, his own worries and fears be damned.
— Laini Taylor, Dreams of Gods & Monsters
When feels that someone puts you aside, sometimes thinks in an act of selfishnessbut always its really to have afraid of something worst.
— frank jymz
Sexual temptations are lurking around every corner in our lives today! Resisting the temptation to gratify the flesh is a full-time job.
— Gary Rohrmayer
Selfish people tend to only be good to themselves... then are surprised when they are alone.
— Steve Maraboli
This selfishness is not only part of me. It is the most living part.It is somehow transcending rather than by avoiding that selfishness that I can bring poise and balance into my life.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise
She was a woman who lived however she wished without care for another, without putting the needs of those around her before her own selfish opinions. We are breeding a nation of such thinkers and individuals--intent on personal expression at all costs--and that will lead to war. I might be more a successful writer if I did not seek to address human truth, but rather spewed out my own limited opinions without care for reader or critic or any kind of propriety.
— Erika Robuck
You might have good, moral efforts of working hard and earning money in order to help feed the poor or something along those lines - and then you get the money you’ve been seeking and you see and feel and taste how sweet it is and you only want more and more and more for…yourself.Money corrupts its own intentions.
— Cole Ryan, Money: I Think We've Missed The Point
Mine mine mine. That was the curse and power of human beings—that what they saw and loved they had to have. They could share it with other people but only if they conceived of those people as being somehow their own. What we own is ours. What you own should also be ours. In fact, you own nothing, if we want it. Because you are nothing. We are the real people, you are only posing as people in order to try to deprive us of what God means us to have.
— Orson Scott Card, Shadow of the Giant
I have two ways of loving You: A selfish one And another way that is worthy of You. In my selfish love, I remember You and You alone. In that other love, You lift the veil And let me feast my eyes on Your living face.
— Rabia Al-Adawiyya
Left to our own devices, we will make God in our own image.
— Jared Brock, A Year of Living Prayerfully: How a Curious Traveler Met the Pope, Walked on Coals, Danced with Rabbis, and Revived His Prayer Life
If we are to build that Zion of which the prophets have spoken and of which the Lord has given mighty promise, we must set aside our consuming selfishness. We must rise above our love for comfort and ease, and in the very process of effort and struggle, even in our extremity, we shall become better acquainted with our God." — Gordon B. Hinckley
— Gordon B. Hinckley
I gave too much to people.... So much selfish people in life.
— Victoria Bando
Have we ever thought to consider that we create values that ‘feel’ right because they serve our current agendas, which is an infinitely different thing from values that ‘are’ right because they serve an eternal agenda?
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
How catastrophic is it when the church herself becomes secularized and expressive individualism sits in the driver’s seat in the church’s life and mission. When the church has lost connection with Christ her living head, she loses her soul.
— Harold L. Senkbeil
Oh, mankind, race of crocodiles! How well I recognize you down there, and how worthy you are of yourselves!
— Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." &“These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people”– –
— Abraham Lincoln
Service is the rent we pay for the life we have been given.
— Marian Wright Edelman
...the human animal is a selfish beast...
— Tennessee Williams
What a strange sort of love, to be entirely free from that quality of selfishness which is frequently the chief constituent of the passion, and sometimes it's only one!
— Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native
We hurt people, when we give ourselves more value than others.
— Junaid Raza
The word 'love,' used in connection with the reproduction of our species, is the most odious blasphemy taught in our times.
— Honoré de Balzac
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.–
— John Kenneth Galbraith
Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives... I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it. Suppose any party, in addition to whatever share it may possess of the ability of the community, has nearly the whole of its stupidity, that party must, by the law of its constitution, be the stupidest party; and I do not see why honorable gentlemen should see that position as at all offensive to them, for it ensures their being always an extremely powerful party . . . There is so much dense, solid force in sheer stupidity, that any body of able men with that force pressing behind them may ensure victory in many a struggle, and many a victory the Conservative party has gained through that power."John Stuart Mill ( British philosopher, economist, and liberal member of Parliament for Westminster from 1865 to 68 )
— John Stuart Mill
Back inside, I’m shown an antique cabinet in which members of the community, famous for their homegrown produce, dried herbs.The Oneida Community was an upstate tourist attraction right from the start, second, Valesky says, to Niagara Falls. I’m taking the same guided tour offered a hundred and fifty years ago to prim rubbernecks who came here to peep at sex fiends. I wonder how many of my vacationing forebears went home disappointed? They thought they were taking the train to Gomorrah but instead they got to watch herbs dry. Valesky opens a drawer in the herb cabinet so I can get a whiff. He mentions that back in the day, when one tourist was shown the cabinet she rudely asked her community-member guide, “What’s that odor?” To which the guide replied, “Perhaps it’s the odor of crushed selfishness.” Valesky grins. “How about that for a utopian answer?” To my not particularly utopian nose, crushed selfishness smells a lot like cilantro.
— Sarah Vowell, Assassination Vacation
If we ignorantly act to solely serve our agenda, we’re simply slogging around in the egocentric and brackish backwaters of selfishness. Any response that comes out of that kind of cesspool will be vulgarly irresponsible.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
Sometimes we realize that we are like facebook ,people using us for themselves , meeting each other via us , earning via us,taking all credits , even no one talking about us ,just using US .
— akash khialani
Sometimes we realize that we are like facebook ,people using us for themselves , meeting each other via us , all credit going to the owner , even no one talking about us ,just using US .
— akash khialani
If it’s the benefit to myself that drives my decisions, I can know that I’m driving down a long road with a short bridge.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
Too often we want to take stands to elevate us rather than elevate a cause.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
Selfishness, self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt. So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making.
— Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous
Maybe you receive pain selfishly — thinking only of yourself. The cycle of pain wounds every participant.
— Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life
he loves that movie for about five minutes. Then he gets Hero's Remorse.
— How I Met Your Mother
think about yourself because selfishness is everywhere
— helda omar
What did I get in return? Coldness and emotional detachment. You are selfish and bitter and you wouldn’t know a good thing if it fell out of the sky at your feet.
— Tarryn Fisher, The Opportunist
Their arrogance protected them against any liking for their fellow-man, against the slightest interest in the strangers sitting all about them, amidst whom M. de Stermaria adopted the manner one has in the buffet-car of a train, grim, hurried, stand-offish, brusque, fastidious and spiteful, surrounded by other passengers whom one has never seen before, whom one will never see again and towards whom the only conceivable way of behaving is to make sure that they keep away from one's cold chicken and stay out of one's chosen corner-seat.
— Marcel Proust, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
How tolerable misfortunes appear when they affect only other people! How strong the human body seems when it's another man's flesh that bleeds! How easy it is to look death in the face when it's another man's turn!
— Irène Némirovsky, Dimanche and Other Stories
For harmonious living
—  value based relationships should be preferred over situation based relationships.
My problem was not only drinking; it was selfishness. The booze was leading me to put myself ahead of others, especially my family. I loved Laura and the girls too much to let that happen. Faith showed me a way out.
— George W. Bush, Decision Points
She was a goddamn unicorn of selfishness.
— Victoria Dahl, Fanning the Flames
Are you willing to nourish your heart with love
—  then your selfishness will starve to death.
What Melanie did was no more than all Southern girls were taught to do: to make those about them feel at ease and pleased with themselves. It was this happy feminine conspiracy which made Southern society so pleasant. Women knew that a land in which men were contented, uncontradicted, and safe in possession of unpunctured vanity was likely to be a very pleasant place for women to live. So from the cradle to the grave, women strove to make men pleased with themselves, and the satisfied men repaid lavishly with gallantry and adoration. In fact, men willingly gave the ladies everything in the world, except credit for having intelligence.Scarlett exercised the same charms as Melanie but with a studied artistry and consummate skill. The difference between the two girls lay in the fact that Melanie spoke kind and flattering words from a desire to make people happy, if only temporarily, and Scarlett never did it except to further her own aims.
— Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
Nor was her love for Udayan recognizable or intact. Anger was always mounted to it, zigzagging through her like some helplessly mating pair of insects. Anger at him for dying when he might have lived. For bringing her happiness, and then taking it away. For trusting her, only to betray her. For believing in sacrifice, only to be so selfish in the end.
— Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
The love of our neighbor is the only door out of the dungeon of self, where we mope and mow, striking sparks, and rubbing phosphorescences out of the walls, and blowing our own breath in our own nostrils, instead of issuing to the fair sunlight of God, the sweet winds of the universe.
— George MacDonald
I am a beast until I love as God doth love.
— George MacDonald, The Diary of an Old Soul
Selfishness leads to nothingness. Generosity and benevolence leads to great reward,” he explained.
— J.W. Lord
When the same qualities which we admire in ourselves are seen in others, even though they be superior, maliciously lower and carp at them.
— John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Vols
Selfishness creates greed and greed destroys the soul.
— Zarina Bibi
Emotion it self is blindfold. So one second of your life control by emotion it's the definition of selfishness.
— Abraham Ruiz
The world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars and the selfish hide in high places. (p 57)
— Bryant McGill, Voice of Reason
When we don’t put the brakes on our self-absorption, we have nothing stopping us from total self-destruction. We become the fruits of our actions.
— Zeena Schreck, Beatdom #11: The Nature Issue
The trouble with Clare was, not only that she wanted to have her cake and eat it too, but that she wanted to nibble at the cakes of other folk as well.
— Nella Larsen, Passing
All love may begin by being passionate, especially for younger people. But in the process of living together, they have to learn and practice love, so that selfishness--the tendency to possess--will diminsh, and the elemetns of understanding and gratitude will settle in, little by little, until their love becomes nourishing, protecting, and reassuring," (41).
— Thich Nhat Hanh, For a Future to Be Possible: Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life
It is not really a small thing when in small things we resist self.
— Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
To Love oneself is Ok but,to love only oneself isn't!
— Krishna Kumar Kanagal
Boredom is for the selfish.
— Patti Digh, What I Wish For You: Simple Wisdom For A Happy Life
To be wrecked begins with an experience that pulls you out of your comfort zone and self-centeredness, whether you want it or not.
— Jeff Goins
I believe I may assert that they were really in possession of deep and growing happiness. It ended. Well, we must be for ourselves in the long run; the mild and generous are only more justly selfish than the domineering- and it ended when circumstances caused each to feel that the one's interest was not in the chief consideration in the other's thoughts.
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
...and as a result yet today we are unable to distinguish between sympathy and selfishness.
— M.H. Rakib, The Cavalier
Some of us -" She paused as she sought the words. " - don't die unless we want to. The selfish ones never do.
— Alex Bledsoe, Wisp of a Thing
You know, Emily was a selfish old woman in her way. She was very generous, but she always wanted a return. She never let people forget what she had done for them - and, that way she missed love.
— Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles
I don't want you to leaveWhich is exactly why I should. But don't worry. I'm essentially a selfish creature. I crave your company too much to do what I should.
— Stephenie Meyer, Twilight
The problem is hedonism. The problem is the preening vanity and selfishness of 'coming out,' of parading private inclinations, of a kind that repel normal people, as if those inclinations were, all by themselves, marks of authenticity and virtue, of suffering and oppression.
— John Derbyshire, We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism
Up to the present man has hardly cultivated sympathy at all. He has merely sympathy with pain, and sympathy with pain is not the highest form of sympathy. All sympathy is fine, but sympathy with suffering is the least fine mode. It is tainted with egotism. It is apt to become morbid. There is in it a certain element of terror for our own safety. We become afraid that we ourselves might be as the leper or as the blind, and that no man would have care of us. It is curiously limiting, too. One should sympathise with the entirety of life, not with life's sores and maladies merely, but with life's joy and beauty and energy and health and freedom.
— Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism
Indeed this gentleman's stoicism was of that not uncommon kind, which enables a man to bear with exemplary fortitude the afflictions of his friends, but renders him, by way of counterpoise, rather selfish and sensitive in respect of any that happen to befall himself.
— Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge
Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.
— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!
— Mae West
I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.
— Alice Walker, The Color Purple
It's funny, but have you ever noticed that the more special something is, the more people seem to take it for granted? It's like they think it won't ever change. Just like this house here. All it ever needed was a little attention, and it would never have ended up like this in the first place.
— Nicholas Sparks, The Wedding
Every one of my fans is so special to me
— Justin Bieber, First Step 2 Forever
Liking is probably the best form of ownership, and ownership the worst form of liking.
— José Saramago, The Tale of the Unknown Island
The difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One is sincere and the other insincere. One comes from the heart out
—  the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish
Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it.
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Now and then, however, he is horribly thoughtless, and seems to take a real delight in giving me pain. Then I feel, Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to some one who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer’s day.
— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
For the yesterdays and todays, and the tomorrows I can hardly wait for - Thank you.
— Cecelia Ahern, The Book of Tomorrow
The honey doesn't taste so good once it is being eaten; the goal doesn't mean so much once it is reached; the reward is no so rewarding once it has been given. If we add up all the rewards in our lives, we won't have very much. But if we add up the spaces *between* the rewards, we'll come up with quite a bit. And if we add up the rewards *and* the spaces, then we'll have everything - every minute of the time that we spent.
— Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh
By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.
— Voltaire
It can be exhausting eating a meal cooked by a man. With a woman, it's, Ho hum, pass the beans. A guy, you have to act like he just built the Taj Mahal.
— Deb Caletti, The Queen of Everything
Just because it isn't perfect, doesn't mean it isn't awesome.
— M.R. Mathias, The Sword and the Dragon
This is how women self-sabotage and self-destruct. Unless we have constant witnesses to our hard work, we are convinced we pull off every day of our lives through smoke and mirrors. (27)
— Sarah Ban Breathnach, Peace and Plenty: Finding Your Path to Financial Serenity
...a little "appreciation" sometimes does quite as much good as all the conscientious "bringing up" in the world.
— L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Appreciation, not possession, makes a thing ours.
— Marty Rubin
A man has only one escape from his old self — to see a different self in the mirror of some woman's eyes.
— Clare Boothe Luce
Appreciation can make a day - even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary. -- Margaret Cousins
— Margaret Cousins
Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things.
— Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea
When you take the small roads you see the life that goes on there, and this makes your own life larger.
— Elizabeth Berg
No matter that they had been together for years, always a feeling of formality when they first saw each other again, even if the separation had been only hours. It had something to do with the attention [he] paid to her – the fact that he never took anyone’s return for granted.
— Tatjana Soli, The Lotus Eaters
The thanks of a weak one are but of little value," he muttered, "but you have them, for truly, in this past week, little but scraps have come my way- and for all my body is small, yet is my appetite unseemly great.
— Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire
Amusement, even ironic amusement, is the beginning of sincere appreciation, as any lapsed hipster knows.
— Last Man Standing, WHEN YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE RIGHT, THERE'S NOTHING TO WRITE ABOUT
Your name?" George asked him directly. He had probably seen the man a dozen times before yet did not know anything about him. King Davit would have no doubt have known half the man's history already."Henry."George took Henry's hand firmly in his own and looked into his eyes. This had to be done delicately, to make sure this Henry did not think him a fool. He tried to think of how his father would do it."Thank you, Henry, for your concern. It is a comfort to know I am so well guarded. I will make sure to praise you when next I speak to the lord general. But for now I think there is no need to worry.
— Mette Ivie Harrison, The Princess and the Hound
True happiness lies in being compassionate and appreciating the world and our circumstances, rather than being coldhearted and greedy. We often realize too late that our favorite moments are those spent simply with the people we love. In seeing the miracles that unfold around us every day. Eventually we all come to understand that our happiness is derived from being present in the moment. Why wait until the end of your life to discover this Truth?
— Russell Simmons, Success Through Stillness: Meditation Made Simple
Mindfulness has to do with waking up and living in harmony with oneself and with the world. It is examining who we are, constantly questioning our views of the world and our place in it, while cultivating appreciation for the fullness of each moment we are alive. It is the direct opposite of taking life for granted. It is empowering as well, because paying attention in this way opens channels to deep reservoirs of creativity, intelligence, imagination, clarity, determination, choice, and wisdom within us.
— Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
Do not try to compensate people for the love they show you. Rather, replicate the love.
— Faithful Akpaloo
Yet, although he could not quite work this out in simple terms in his own mind, the very savour of life, he thought, was itself enhanced if it were not totally taken for granted. Perhaps it was something to do with the whole philosophy of the world into which we were born. If we lived for ever, who would look forward eagerly to tomorrow? If there were no darkness, should we appreciate the sun? Warmth after cold, food after hunger, drink after thirst, sexual love after the absence of sexual love, the fatherly greeting after being away, the comfort and dryness of home after a ride in the rain, the warmth and peace and security of one’s fireside after being among enemies. Unless there was contrast there might be satiety.
— Winston Graham, The Black Moon
There comes a time in one’s life, perhaps in middle age, when we stop and assess who we are, and the life we have.
— Fennel Hudson, Fine Things - Fennel's Journal - No. 8
Appreciate what you have, while you have it, or you’ll learn what it meant to you after you lose it.
— Frank Sonnenberg, BookSmart: Hundreds of real-world lessons for success and happiness
Maybe it was simply human nature to only love a thing after losing it. Maybe they should all lose more things so they can appreciate what they had.
— Tiffany Reisz, The Night Mark
A man's voice was saying, "Odette seems a little off tonight.""You think?" answered a woman."Less confident than last night's," said the man. "I wonder if she's injured." A loud put-upon sigh. "Not to mention that the swans sound more like a herd of elephants."Oh, come on, Grigori wanted to say: You spoiled, spoiled people. The dancer was wonderful, just like the swan-girls, doing their best to deliver them magnificence. If she was "slightly off", it was nothing Grigori had been able to notice. These people - himself included - were all so thoroughly indulged, could they not simply accept the wonder of it, sitting in this lush, gilded theater while a live orchestra accompanied so much physical exquisiteness? And this man thought he had the right to be disappointed! That these people expected so much, that they could expect that much, and not be ashamed of their petty disappointments.
— Daphne Kalotay, Russian Winter
For always remember that while it is wrong to use too few, it is often far worse to use too many." - Which Macabre
— Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
Lack of thanksgiving result to lack of appreciation. Most people fail to appreciate because they failed to devote offering thanksgiving. You'll never appreciate your Pastor, Family, Partner or Friend, if you are not thankful of their presence. Be thankful then you'll learn to appreciate somehow.
— Kabelo Mabona
When you have so little, just the smallest thing can make you happy
— Yeonmi Park, In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
Limitlessness is the emotion that sunny mornings evoke in me now. A new appreciation for the present moment, untainted by the past or unknown future.
— Kaleb Kilton
Using guilt, fear or any other negative emotion to try to change someone’s behavior backfires 100% of the time. If you want someone to do something for you or for themselves, the most important thing to remember is they have to want to do it. No positive outcome will ever be achieved by tearing another person apart or kicking them while they are down. If you truly want to help someone, conveying to them what a positive impact they’ve had in your life, is a great place to start.
— D.S. Luca, The Happiness Prize: Common Truths That Lead to an Uncommon Life
Don't lose a treasure while looking for trash.
— Jeanette Coron
Don’t discount this powerful use of appreciation. It is one of the great secrets of life. It’s the feeling and emotion of appreciation that matters most, not the lip service.
— D.S. Luca, The Happiness Prize: Common Truths That Lead to an Uncommon Life
You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.
— Michael Phelps
I do not like selfish appreciationbecause it does not say nor speakinto my silence.Religious Leader Petra Cecilia Maria HermansReligion Of Blue Circle
— Petra Hermans
Appreciate and be grateful for everyday.
— Independent Zen
There is no wine in the world as heady as applause
—  and it has the same effect. It temporarily subdues anxiety and restores confidence.
Appreciate the simple and little things which are felt with the heart ~ they are the biggest things in life!﻿
— Angie karan
A person who appreciates someone doing something good is also a good person.
— Saif Ullah
She settled into a sitting position, wincing. "Oh, my poor rear end. I hope you appreciate what I went through to get here."Alain watched her anxiously. "You have hurt your...""My butt. Yeah." She returned his gaze, puzzled. "I'll survive. Why are you blushing?""Blushing?" His face felt warm. What did that mean?"Yes." Mari laughed. Does talking about my butt embarrass you? I'm sorry. It's nothing special.""I..." His face felt even warmer. "I think it is.""You do, huh? Where have you been all my life?"This time he gave her a mystified look. "I sent almost all of it inside a Mage Guild Hall. The one in Ihris. You know this."Mari laughed again.
— Jack Campbell, The Hidden Masters of Marandur
I asked Troit, ‘What was it about the gang leaders that made you want to be more like them?’Troit answered, ‘To be truthful, I used to feel good in their presence. I used to feel wanted in their presence. I used to feel appreciated in their presence. In their presence, you can sit down and talk and you can feel that they appreciate you. Troit Lynes, former death row inmate of Her Majesty Prison in The Bahamas
— Drexel Deal, The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father
Do I always have to be dependent on ‘seeing a man with no feet’ . . . before I realize that ‘I have feet’?
— Shah
It was best to appreciate what you had and not yearn for more.
— Rick Riordan, The Throne of Fire
Eventually, my grandfather said: - You must understand, this is one of those moments.- What moments?- One of those moments you keep to yourself.…The story of this war… that belongs to everyone… But something like this— this is yours. It belongs only to you. And me. Only to us.
— Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife
She hadn't expected this. "Are you not angry?""Yes, very much so.""Do you not require some time to think about what I've told you?""Yes, I do. But you do not have to leave. There is much for me to come to terms with, mana mila, but I do not wish to be away from you anymore. Even when I am angry.
— C.J. Markusfeld, Vanguard
Somewhere deep insider her, the feeling of appreciation had begun to soothe and quiet all the other negative feelings.
— Denesia Christine Huttula, The Bridges of Chara: An Allegory of Your Brain's Emotional Landscape
It’s always nice to hear that you’re appreciated for all that you do.
— Auliq Ice
Not everyone will appreciate the beauty of their surroundings like you do. Spend time with those that do.
— April Mae Monterrosa
Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader. And I shall tell you why. When we read a book for the first time the very process of laboriously moving our eyes from left to right, line after line, page after page, this complicated physical work upon the book, the very process of learning in terms of space and time what the book is about, this stands between us and artistic appreciation. When we look at a painting we do not have to move our eyes in a special way even if, as in a book, the picture contains elements of depth and development. The element of time does not really enter in a first contact with a painting. In reading a book, we must have time to acquaint ourselves with it. We have no physical organ (as we have the eye in regard to a painting) that takes in the whole picture and then can enjoy its details. But at a second, or third, or fourth reading we do, in a sense, behave towards a book as we do towards a painting. However, let us not confuse the physical eye, that monstrous masterpiece of evolution, with the mind, an even more monstrous achievement. A book, no matter what it is—a work of fiction or a work of science (the boundary line between the two is not as clear as is generally believed)—a book of fiction appeals first of all to the mind. The mind, the brain, the top of the tingling spine, is, or should be, the only instrument used upon a book.
— Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Literature
By being grateful, appreciating all we have instead of focusing on what is lacking, we allow more of the same to flow toward us.
— William Powers, Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream
The most influential people you will ever meet were once held together by the encouragement of others.
— Shannon L. Alder
Appreciate what you have while you still have it because one day you won't.
— Robert Tew
In America, applause is won only by physical exertion.
— David McCullough, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
Appreciate success and status thy will bestow.
— Pushkar Saraf
To realize the value of 1 week, ask an editor of a weekly newspaper. To realize the value of 10 years, ask a newly divorced couple. To realize the value of 4 years, ask a graduate. To realize the value of 1 year, ask a student who has failed their final exam. To realize the value of 9 months, ask a mother who has given birth to a stillborn. To realize the value of 1 mont, ask a mother who has given birth prematurely. To realize the value of 1 minute, ask a person who missed the train, bus or plane. To realize the value of 1 second, ask a person who has survived an accident. To realize the value of freedom ask a person who's in prison. To realize the value of success, ask a person who has failed. To realize the value of a friend, relative, family member or partner, LOSE ONE." Time waits for no-one, treasure every split-second.
— Katlego Semusa
Cultural heritage define the uniqueness of individuals. Appreciate cultural diversity.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
Take time to sense the abundance we have, as we don't have an abundance of time.
— Dixie Waters
Humans love appreciation. It is best tool to achieve them.
— Junaid Raza
It has been said that art is a tryst; for in the joy of it, maker and beholder meet.
— Kojiro Tomita
When you express thankfulness, even the almost empty tank of petrol will go the extra mile; it changes challenges into opportunities, mistakes into experiences, disappointments into celebrations, doubt into faith.
— Malti Bhojwani, thankfulness appreciation gratitude - my journal
When God blesses you with great opportunities in life
—  be sure to take a moment and be thankful for them.
It's really not that difficult to be happy. You just have to be grateful and especially appreciate what you do have now. The rest will come, my dear.
— Fasela Oosterwolde
If we lost everything except for the clothes we stood up in, would we turn to each other and think....How lucky we really were?
— Jacqueline Kennedy
What difference does it make whether your work is appreciated or not? The work will still be yours. Anyway, most of us are only appreciated after we are dead.
— John Sloan, Gist of Art: Principles and Practise Expounded in the Classroom and Studio
But nobody ever tells you in advance when you should concentrate on the good times-that's why you're supposed to do it every day.
— Jordan Sonnenblick, After Ever After
The scar on my chest, the beating of my heart, and the mountains that fostered my appreciation for the cold, hard, natural world—these were the few things that mattered.
— Daniel Wallock, Right-Hearted: Finding What's Right With a Wrong-Sided Heart
I had a dream that I knew it all…but then I woke up and appreciated the fact that I didn’t know everything because then there would be nothing left to discover in life.
— Starley Ard, Dreaming is for lovers