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About this quote

What does it mean?
Humans naturally possess both selfish and selfless drives.
In plain terms
People are born wanting things for themselves and for others.
What can you take from it?
Acknowledge both sides of human nature.

Where it applies

  • self-reflection
  • teamwork
  • parenting

Putting it to work

  • identify your drives
  • balance them

Questions to consider

  • Which impulses rule you?
  • Can you be wholly selfless?

Another view

Nature also varies by individual.

More from Reinhold Niebuhr

  1. The society in which each man lives is at once the basis for, and the nemesis of, that fulness of life which each man seeks.

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  2. All social cooperation on a larger scale than the most intimate social group requires a measure of coercion.

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  3. The individual or the group which organizes any society, however social its intentions or pretensions, arrogates an inordinate portion of social privilege to i…

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