Selfishness: Not to be mistaken with ignorance or self-absorbancy.

It is easy to mix them up. But selfish people do what they do on purpose. Ignorant people or self-absorbed people don't even grasp the concept of being selfish and can generally be described as some of the most dense people you'll ever meet.

Self"ish (?), a.

1.

Caring supremely or unduly for one's self; regarding one's own comfort, advantage, etc., in disregard, or at the expense, of those of others.

They judge of things according to their own private appetites and selfish passions. Cudworth.

In that throng of selfish hearts untrue. Keble.

2. Ethics

Believing or teaching that the chief motives of human action are derived from love of self.

Hobbes and the selfish school of philosophers. Fleming.

 

© Webster 1913.

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