Growing into an environment in which everyone else seems bigger and more powerful, every child seeks to gain what they need by the easiest route.

She smiled. Everyone is greedy, she said. Even people who have all the money and power in the universe want more to protect what they already have.

We are all born brave, trusting, and greedy, and most of us manage to remain greedy.

Greed. What's more greedy than wanting to take something from someone else that you haven't earned.

We all tend to be greedy end-gainers, paying no attention to our means whereby.

No living creature is naturally greedy, except from fear of want - or in the case of human beings, from vanity, the notion that you're better than people if you can display more superfluous property than they can.

Who are the greedy? Those who are not satisfied with what suffices for their own needs. Who are the robbers? Those who take for themselves what rightfully belongs to everyone. And you, are you not greedy? Are you not a robber? The things you received in trust as a stewardship, have you not appropriated them for yourself? Is not the person who strips another of clothing called a thief? And those who do not clothe the naked when they have the power to do so, should they not be called the same? The bread you are holding back is for the hungry, the clothes you keep put away are for the naked, the shoes that are rotting away with disuse are for those who have none, the silver you keep buried in the earth is for the needy. You are thus guilty of injustice toward as many as you might have aided, and did not.

I think I’m greedy, but I’m not greedy for money – I think that can be a burden – I’m greedy for an exciting life. I want it to be exciting all the time, and I get it, actually. On the other hand, I can find excitement, I admit, in raindrops falling on a puddle and a lot of people wouldn’t. I intend to have it exciting until the day I fall over.

When men and women are rewarded for greed, greed becomes a corrupting motivator. When we equate the gluttonous consumption of the earth's resources with a status approaching sainthood, when we teach our children to emulate people who live unbalanced lives, and when we define huge sections of the population as subservient to an elite minority, we ask for trouble.

be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy.

Men and women who rule us are greedy with an overwhelming degree of selfishness. They go into government simply to chop their portion of the national cake. They are into government to pay lip-service to the manifestos they give the electorate to get them voted into power.

Be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy

We’re not making a world without greed, Jacob. We’re making a world where greed is a perversion. Where grabbing everything for yourself instead of sharing is like smearing yourself with shit: gross. Wrong.
Our winning doesn’t mean you don’t get to be greedy. It means people will be ashamed for you, will pity you and want to distance themselves from you. You can be as greedy as you want, but no one will admire you for it.

I think I’m greedy, but I’m not greedy for money - I think that can be a burden - I’m greedy for an exciting life.