Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.
Interpretation
Selfish desires often undermine genuine connections and love.
This quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt suggests that when individuals prioritize their own interests above the well-being of others, it negatively impacts their ability to form sincere and loving relationships. True affection is rooted in selflessness and a commitment to the collective good, and when self-interest prevails, it creates barriers to love and connection.
In practice
In a wedding speech, one could say, 'Remember that self-interest is the enemy of all true affection, and may your love be always selfless.'
There has been one persistent theme through all Axis propaganda. This theme has been that Americans are admittedly rich, that Americans have considerable industrial power - but that Americans are soft and decadent, that they cannot and will not unite and work and fight. ... Let them tell that to the Marines!
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships. Books, like ships, have the toughest armor, the longest cruising range, and mount the most powerful guns.
Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too.
I like being married. It's an institution that I like.
As long as I was in Washington I never met anybody that I thought was good enough, who knew enough, or who loved enough to make sexual decisions for anybody else.
Social acceptance, 'being liked,' has so much power because it holds the feelings of loneliness at bay.
We cannot even let the other person into our hearts or minds unless we empty ourselves. We can truly listen to him or truly hear her only out of emptiness.
It's kind of like those little electric bumper cars where you drive around and see if you can hit the other guy. That's exactly what the country is like now. You no longer have the sense of community. Of loyalty. It's lost its sense of group. It has nothing to do with leadership.
Women are never what they seem to be. There is the woman you see and there is the woman who is hidden. Buy the gift for the woman who is hidden.
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