John Adams: Desire
A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man.

Aristotle: Desire
For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.

Our last meeting of this year is coming soon! It would a nice moment to comment on such an interesting topic:”Desire”

” Desire, is the desire to keep our life and to make it worth living, enriched by the meetings with the others and with the objects of the world, this activity only finishes with death.”

from La Nacion Cultura Diana Cohen Agrest

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be“.

Marcel Pagnol

In our last meeting, we have been working on: Selfishness/Selflessness/Self-interestedness

Some of the questions were: 

Is altruism / selflessness possible?

Is everything we choose to do selfish by definition?

Could selfishness be a way of self-protection?

Is there a difference between selfishness and self-interestedness?

Is altruism/selflessness very deep down inside us motivated by a desire to make ourselves feel good?

Is the word “selfish” reserved only for people whose interests are more greedy, uncompassionate or narcissistic than other people’s interests?

Does a “selfless” person have no desires, values or goals to act out?

As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision. Hellen Keller

A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses. Oscar Wilde

Live for yourself – there’s no one else more worth living for. Begging  hands and bleeding hearts will only cry out for more. Neil Peart (Canadian drummer)

Charity consists not so much on how much we give to the person but on how much we keep for ourselves. Gregory Ramkisoon

It’s wonderful to see where the path can lead us if we take the risk to follow our inner artist’s dreams… congratulations Fernanda & Esteban!

Something to read:  

As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.  Helen Keller

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Oscar Wilde

To go on reading and thinking about the topic for our  next meeting: selfishness/ selflessness! Saturday 14th

Egoism

The terms “egoism” and “egotism” may refer to:

• egotism, an excessive or exaggerated sense of self-importance
• ethical egoism, the doctrine that holds that individuals ought to do what is in their self-interest
• psychological egoism, the doctrine that holds that individuals are always motivated by self-interest
• rational egoism, the belief that it is rational to act in one’s self-interest
• solipsism, (sometimes called egoism), the belief that only one’s self exists, or that only the experiences of one’s self can be verified
• Egoist anarchism, a form of anarchism, as most often represented by Max Stirner 

Definition:
 

The quality or state of being selfish; exclusive regard to one’s own interest or happiness; that supreme self-love or self-preference which leads a person to direct his purposes to the advancement of his own interest, power, or happiness, without regarding those of others.