“Altruism is a barbarism. Love is the word.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 170

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John Lancaster Spalding 202

Catholic bishop 1840–1916

Lewis Thomas (1913–1993) American physician, poet and educator

"The Tucson Zoo", p. 10
The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (1979)
Context: Everyone says, stay away from ants. They have no lessons for us; they are crazy little instruments, inhuman, incapable of controlling themselves, lacking manners, lacking souls. When they are massed together, all touching, exchanging bits of information held in their jaws like memoranda, they become a single animal. Look out for that. It is a debasement, a loss of individuality, a violation of human nature, an unnatural act.
Sometimes people argue this point of view seriously and with deep thought. Be individuals, solitary and selfish, is the message. Altruism, a jargon word for what used to be called love, is worse than weakness, it is sin, a violation of nature. Be separate. Do not be a social animal. But this is a hard argument to make convincingly when you have to depend on language to make it. You have to print out leaflets or publish books and get them bought and sent around, you have to turn up on television and catch the attention of millions of other human beings all at once, and then you have to say to all of them, all at once, all collected and paying attention: be solitary; do not depend on each other. You can’t do this and keep a straight face.

“The paramount manifestation of humanism is altruism stemming from love for mankind.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

“Homosexual' is a barbarously hybrid word, and I claim no responsibility for it.”

H. Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British physician, writer, and social reformer

Studies in Psychology (1897)

“We have so far to go to realize our human potential for compassion, altruism, and love.”

Jane Goodall (1934) British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist

Source: Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating

“Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the higher altruism.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

Source: 1990s, Screening History (1992), Ch. 1: The Prince and the Pauper, p. 24
Context: Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the higher altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to pay for the freedom not only to conform but to consume.