It's easy to point out the evil in other people, but that can be found in all of us. That selfishness, that is something we all have in us. Sometimes you are successful at dealing with it, and sometimes you are not.
Interpretation
We all possess selfish tendencies and recognizing this in ourselves is essential to personal growth.
This quote by Jeff Bridges reflects the universal nature of selfishness within human beings. It suggests that while we may easily identify negative traits in others, such traits exist within ourselves as well. Acknowledging our own flaws enables us to address them constructively, recognizing that dealing with our selfishness is an ongoing challenge that varies in success from person to person.
In practice
During a discussion about human behavior, this quote can emphasize the need for self-reflection.
We're such a funky species. We're so violent, so greedy - this is how we roll. But what are we going to do about it? How do we move forward given who we are? Because situations don't come out of nothing. They come out of certain conditions.
There are so many things that pop up. If you are paying attention, you can learn every second of the day. Life is my guru.
When I'm working, on sets or stages, my contracts specify in the rider that no plastic bottles be used. When I'm playing with my band, we all use metal and non-plastic containers for drinking to be ecologically sensitive and show others that this is the way to go.
My wife, whenever I'd go off to work and I'd be kind of anxious, she'll say, 'Remember, have fun.' Oh, I forgot, thanks for the reminder. Because sometimes we do forget. We take it all too seriously and there's a lot of joy to be had wherever you are.
35 million people in the U.S. are hungry or don't know where their next meal is coming from, and 13 million of them are children. If another country were doing this to our children, we'd be at war.
It's not enough just to treat women well. We have to work to make sure all men treat women well.
When I consider life, it is all a cheat. Yet fooled with hope, people favor this deceit.
You’ll join me sooner than you know in a place with . . . no illusions, where the truth is the only architecture, the only color, the only sound--where that which we sense merely on occasion, and which takes us up and gives us the rare and beautiful glimpses of the things we truly love, flows in deep rivers and tumbles about like clouds in the sky.
Who will observe the observers?
An American of the present day reading his Sunday newspaper in a state of lazy collapse is one of the most perfect symbols of the triumph of quantity over quality that the world has yet seen.
There are the saints of every day, the 'hidden' saints, a sort of 'middle class of holiness'... to which we can all belong.
But how can you walk away from something and still come back to it?
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