TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES OF EGOISM
(I posted this in 2010 and for an unknown, and disconcerting reason it’s no longer on my blog. I went to look for it yesterday and couldn’t find it, so I transcribed it once more.)
Know thyself. —Solon.
Knowledge is power. —Bacon.
To thine own self be true. —Shakespeare.
The beautiful is always severe. —Segur.
If it be right to me, it is right. —Stirner.
Moderation is the pleasure of the wise. —Voltaire
God helps them (only) who help themselves. —Franklin.
Love is the union of a want and a sentiment. —Lamartine.
Self-love is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting. —Shakespeare.
To scoff at philosophy is to act as a true philosopher. —Pascal.
very mortal is relieved by speaking of his misfortunes. —Chénier.
Man is Creation’s master-piece. But who says so?—Man. —Gavarni.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere. —Voltaire.
He who is devoted to everybody is devoted to nobody. —Delavigne.
God is generally on the side of the strongest battalions. —Napoleon.
Under the freest constitution ignorant people are still slaves. —Condorcet.
In jealousy there is usually more self-love than love. —Rochefoucauld.
Goodness, for the most part, is but indolence, or impotence. —Ib.
When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves we are leaving them. —Ib.
The greatest of all pleasures is to give pleasure to one we love. —Boufflers.
We like those to whom we do good better than those who do us good. —Saint-Réal.
Trust in God and [that is, so far as you] keep your powder dry.—Cromwell.
It is easier to be good for everybody, than to be good for somebody. —A. Dumas fils.
The more honest a man is, the less he affects the airs of a saint. —Lavater.
To know man, borrow the ear of the blind and the eye of the deaf. —Ib.
Who despises all that is despicable, is made to be impressed with all that
is grand. —Ib.
Everybody exclaims against ingratitude. Are there so many benefactors ? —Bougeart.
A woman by whom we are loved is a vanity ; a woman whom we love is a. religion. —Giradin.
Diversity of opinion proves that things are only what we think them. —Montaigne.
To love is to ask of another the happiness that is lacking in ourselves. —Rochepedre.
Virtue is so praiseworthy that wicked people practice it from self-interest. —Vauvenargues.
There is pleasure in meeting the eyes of those to whom we have done good. —La Bruyère.
The art of conversation consists less in showing one’s own wit than in giving opportunity for the display of the wit of others. —Ib.
Egoism is another name for self-preservation ; the egoist, after providing: for self, turns altruist. —Tilden.
High positions are like the summit of high, steep rocks: eagles and reptiles alone can reach them. —Mme. Necker.
The men of future generations will yet win many a liberty of which we do, not even feel the want. —Stirner.
One is free in proportion as one is strong ; there is no real liberty save that which one takes for one’s self. —lb.
There are persons who do not know how to waste their time alone and hence become the scourge of busy people. —Bonald.
Not to enjoy one’s youth when one is young, is to imitate the miser who starves beside his treasures. —Mme. Louise Colet.
All passions are good when one masters them ; all are bad when one is a. slave to them. [The same is true of ideas]. —Rousseau.
You can tell more about a man’s character by trading horses with him once than you can by hearing him talk for a year in prayer meeting. —American Maxim.
Forget this superstition (that the day of noble deeds is past), steep your souls in Plutarch, and through believing in his heroes, dare to believe in yourselves. —Nietzsche.
To be regardful of others within reason is intelligent egoism, but it is necessary to distinguish those who are worthy of our regard from those who are not. —Tak Kak.
The discoverer of a great truth well knows that it may be useful to other men, and, as a greedy with-holding would bring him no enjoyment, he communicates it. —Stirner.
Everywhere the strong have made the laws and oppressed the weak ; and,. if they have sometimes consulted the interests of society, they have always. forgotten those of humanity. —Turgot.
Napoleon the exploiter said, ” The heart of a statesman should be in his head.” The exploited will never be saved till they make the brain the seat of their patriotic affections.
Religion and moralism say that we may have passions, but we must not allow our passions to enslave us. The egoist extends the suggestion to include ideas. He has ideas, but he remains the master of them All the ideas he has he will use as he sees fit. If of a speculative intellectual turn, the egoist cannot doubt that there is the greatest good for all in egoism, and as he can find. satisfaction in proving it, he may undertake to do so. —Tak Kak.