Domestic and foreign authors described egoism in an aphoristic form, deeply and accurately analyzing all the shades and characteristics of narcissism, vanity, egocentrism, narcissism.
Quotes about egoism can be found in A.S. Pushkin, L.N. Tolstoy, N.A. Ostrovsky, F.M. Dostoevsky, I.S. Turgenev, O. Wilde, Graham Green, A. Camus and many other writers and philosophers. Interesting comments about this lack of human nature were left by female writers and authors of diaries.
Philosophers of Egoism
No matter how stigmatized the egoists, they feel great and do not repent at all in their position in life for many centuries. In the IV century BC, Aristotle gave a precise definition of this vice:
Selfishness does not lie in the love of oneself, but in a greater than due degree of this love. (Aristotle).
The 17th-century English philosopher, Francis Bacon, had no doubt at all about the bad qualities and aspirations of narcissistic people who would not spare anyone, even for the sake of their smallest goals:
To set fire to a house in order to fry fried eggs is in the character of an egoist. (F. Bacon).
Ludwig Feuerbach, a German philosopher of the 19th century, found in egoism not only personal, but also social features:
There is not only solitary or individual egoism, but also social egoism, family egoism, corporate, community, patriotic egoism. (L. Firebach).
Friedrich Nietzsche, a philosopher of the second half of the 19th century, warned egoists who do not understand their true thoughts and feelings well enough:
But the most dangerous enemy you can meet will always be you; you yourself lurk in caves and forests (F. Nietzsche).
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian psychiatrist, shared this view. Unconscious egoistic needs are dangerous:
The ego is not the master in his own house (Z. Freud)
Albert Camus, a French existentialist, proposed in the 20th century his interpretation of selfish aspirations:
The feelings we experience do not transform us, but suggest the idea of transformation to us. So love does not rid us of egoism, but makes us realize it and reminds us of a distant homeland where there is no place for egoism. (A. Camus)
Russian classics
Russian classical literature is rich in definitions of egoism. All the characteristic features of a narcissist, various types and types of egoism are described in detail and thoroughly. Russian thinkers have studied the concept of "egoism" from all sides. They asked whether this word is too broad, and why it is used for such diverse qualities as independence and self-love.
The more we are cold, prudent, prudent, the less attacked by ridicule. Selfishness may be disgusting, but it is not ridiculous, for it is prudent. However, there are people who love themselves with such tenderness, are surprised at their genius with such enthusiasm, think about their well-being with such tenderness, about their displeasure with such compassion that in them egoism has a ridiculous side of enthusiasm and sensitivity. (A.S. Pushkin)
There are three categories of egoists: egoists who themselves live and give life to others; egoists who themselves live and do not allow others to live; finally, egoists who themselves do not live and do not give others (I. S. Turgenev).
Family egoism is harsher than personal egoism. A person who is ashamed to sacrifice the benefits of another for himself alone, considers it his duty to use unhappiness, the need of people for the good of the family (L.N. Tolstoy).
Quotes about egoism from Russian classics reflected a contradictory attitude to this concept in the 19th century, even positive qualities were understood by it.
The word “egoism”, like the word “love”, is too general: there can be vile love, there can be high egoism. The egoism of a developed, thinking person is noble. He is his love for science, for art, for his neighbor, for wide life, for independence; the love of a limited savage, even the love of Othello is the highest egoism. (A.I. Herzen)
But what should I do if I probably know that the foundation of all human virtues is the deepest egoism. And the more virtuous the matter, the more egoism is here. Love yourself - this is one rule that I recognize. Life is a business deal. (F.M. Dostoevsky)
The egoists of all complain more about the egoism of others, because they suffer the most from it. (V.O. Klyuchevsky)
Personal egoism is the father of meanness. (M. Gorky)
Oscar Wilde on Selfishness
Many know Oscar Wilde's aphorism about human selfishness.
Selfishness is not that a person lives as he wants, but that he forces others to live by his own principles. (O. Wald)
Wilde, master of sophism and paradox, hid from his fans that he was very disingenuous. In this quote about egoism, it is not at all obvious that in life the principles "for oneself" and "for others" are inseparable.
The extravagant esthetician Oscar Wilde was a moralist in his best works. He argued that the reader sees in the “Portrait of Dorian Gray” only a reflection of his own sins.
However, Wilde himself denied his famous aphorism. His Dorian, for whom the moral and the beautiful were separated for a time, made a mistake. Dorian died trying to destroy his portrait. No morality - no beauty.
Quotes about egoism from classical literature often lead to the idea that only those who help make others beautiful are truly beautiful.
Graham Green, an English writer, said a very interesting phrase about the egoism of the 20th century:
Show me a happy person, and I will show you either narcissism, selfishness and anger, or sheer spiritual blindness. (G. Green)
Selfishness through the eyes of women writers
Quotes about selfishness and love can be found on the pages of women's novels, diaries, and essays.
Maria Bashkirtseva, a Russian artist of the 19th century, left a wonderful observation in her diaries.
Real egoists should do only good: doing evil itself is too unhappy. (M. Bashkirtseva)
Bashkirtseva believed that ambition is a noble passion, out of pride and ambition people try to be kind to others, even for a minute, and this is better than never to be kind.
When there are quotes about the selfishness of men, it is noticeable that women are often jealous of activities and pleasures that are more attractive to the stronger sex than love affairs.
Of all the passions (to power, to fame, to drugs, to women), passion for a woman is nevertheless the weakest. (N. Berberova)
Loneliness, she said, could begin in a hug.
Simone de Beauvoir also noted the high vanity of men:
The most ordinary man feels like a demigod next to a woman. (Simone de Beauvoir)
Harriet Beecher Stow, 19th-century American writer and author of Uncle Tom’s Hut believed that selfish feelings were a universal disaster for men and women:
Selfishness is a disgusting vice that no one is deprived of and that no one wants to forgive another. (G. Beecher Stow)
Maria Ebner-Eschenbach, an Austrian writer, stated in one of her classic aphorisms:
The egoism of happy people is careless, superficial and unaccountable. The egoism of unfortunate people is fierce, bitter and convinced of their rightness. (M. Ebner-Eshenbach)