"Is it any wonder, therefore, that the young, accustomed to such an environment, grow up to consider life itself a game, in which they are to strive to outwit those about them? Is it any wonder that you and I and men and women everywhere are helplessly selfish, when we were born so, when all that we know of altruism has come thru Sunday-school rumors and straggling precepts, and when we have all our lives been surrounded by selfish people and occupied in selfish pastimes and professions? Nothing could be more natural. Altruism is anomalous on the earth, and it is not astonishing."
React to this quote
More by J. Howard Moore
See allResonant Thoughts
"The professional man lives off ideas, not for them. … He has acquired a stock of mental skills that are for sale. The skills are highly developed, but we do not think of him as being an intellectual i…"
"I shall now no more behold my dear father with these "bodily eyes. With him a whole threescore and ten years of the past has doubly died for me. It is as if a new leaf in the great hook of time were t…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"All hegemonies have their limits, and no policies ever achieve just what they intend. But the salient featu…"
— Perry Anderson"I have no doubt whatever of the future. I know there are times in the history of all reforms, when the futu…"
— Frederick Douglass"We present a dramatically different approach to time management. This is a principle-centered approach. It …"
— Stephen Covey"There is no more time-wasting process than that of believing people will act, and then finding that they wi…"
— Bill Mollison"It would look very strange, when the Commons of England are so fond of their right of sending representativ…"
— John Holt (Lord Chief Justice)"The best thing to do will be to choose the path to Galta, traverse it again , and without realizing it, alm…"
— Octavio Paz