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Literary notes about altruism (AI summary)

In literature, altruism is crafted as a complex, multifaceted concept that both celebrates selfless virtue and questions its practical limits. Some writers extol altruism as essential for ethical living and social harmony, portraying it as a noble, even divinely inspired trait ([1], [2], [3]), while others cast it in a more ambivalent light—suggesting that its manifestations can sometimes mask selfish intentions or even prove counterproductive in realms like business and politics ([4], [5], [6]). Moreover, authors frequently juxtapose altruism with egoism to highlight the tension between individual desire and communal well-being, inviting readers to reconsider the true nature of moral sacrifice and human interdependence ([7], [8], [9]).
  1. With Comte she said, "Altruism alone can enable us to live in the highest and truest sense."
    — from George Eliot; a Critical Study of Her Life, Writings and Philosophy by George Willis Cooke
  2. To be a good teacher demands a high degree of altruism, for one must be willing to sink self, to die—as it were—that others may live.
    — from Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 06 Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Artists by Elbert Hubbard
  3. [123] Forethought for others is the most intelligent altruism.
    — from Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus Fearthought by Horace Fletcher
  4. [289] She flushed, noticing this, and said: "Altruism is a luxury in business matters; selfishness of the justifiable sort a necessity.
    — from Quick Action by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
  5. In short: the cult of altruism is merely a particular form of egoism, which regularly appears under certain definite physiological circumstances.
    — from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Nietzsche
  6. (Egotism may be regarded as the pre-eminence of the ego, altruism as the pre-eminence of others .)
    — from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Nietzsche
  7. “Altruism,” say they, “is the getting of a man to do something worth something for nothing.”
    — from Minerva's Manoeuvres: The Cheerful Facts of a "Return to Nature" by Charles Battell Loomis
  8. "Egoism" and "altruism" are both one-sided qualities arising out of the perversion of man's, "natural goodness.
    — from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  9. Altruism and egoism are both based upon the essence of life and nature.
    — from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche

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