“Selfishness is hypocritical by nature, and seizes on the first decent excuse as a cloak;”

— Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Selfishness is hypocritical by nature, and seizes on the first decent excuse as a cloak;" by Letitia Elizabeth Landon?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon 785

English poet and novelist 1802–1838

Related quotes

“Nature has no compassion. Nature accepts no excuses and the only punishment it knows is death.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Section 36
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)

“According to the first image of international relations, the locus of the important causes of war is found in the nature and behavior of man. Wars result from selfishness, from misdirected aggressive impulses, from stupidity.”

Kenneth N. Waltz book Man, the State, and War

Source: Man, the State, and War (1959), Chapter II, The First Image, p. 16

“Human beings are endowed by nature with both selfish and unselfish impulses.”

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) American protestant theologian

Source: (1932), p.25

“Man is naturally more disposed to beneficent than selfish actions.”

Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767–1835) German (Prussian) philosopher, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the University of Berlin

Source: The Limits of State Action (1792), Ch. 8
Context: Man is naturally more disposed to beneficent than selfish actions. This we learn even from the history of savages. The domestic virtues have something in them so inviting and genial, and the public virtues of the citizen something so grand and inspiring, that even he who is barely uncorrupted, is seldom able to resist their charm.

“Wisdom's first progress is to take a view
What's decent or indecent, false or true.”

John Denham (1615–1669) English poet and courtier

Source: Of Prudence (1668), line 1

“No doubt Jack the Ripper excused himself on the grounds that it was human nature.”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

“Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature — opposition to it, in his love of justice.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1850s, Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854)
Context: Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature — opposition to it, in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks, and throes, and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise — repeal all compromises — repeal the Declaration of Independence — repeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man's heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.