We are survival machinesörobot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. This is a truth which still fills me with astonishment.

-Dawkins, Richard
  The Selfish Gene, ch.2.

Ihave precious little sympathy for theselfish proprietyof civilized man, and if awarof racesshould occurbetween the wild beasts and Lord Man, I would be tempted to sympathise with the bears.

-Muir,John
A Thousand-Mile Walkto theGulf, ch.5,'Through Florida Swamps and Forests' (published1916).

In marriage, a man becomes slack and selfish, and undergoes a fatty degeneration of his moral being.

-Stevenson, Robert Louis
Virginibus Puerisque,'Virginibus Puerisque', pt.1.