Daily Inspiration Quote by Anita Brookner

Brookner’s line lands like a confession you’re not quite supposed to applaud. It takes a virtue-signaled culture of self-denial and flips it into a cool, almost clinical defense of appetite: the world looks “promising” not when you become better, but when you stop negotiating with other people’s expectations. The key verb is “decided.” This isn’t a childish tantrum or a greedy impulse; it’s a deliberate policy shift. Once you choose yourself as the main stakeholder, the scenery changes. “Promising” is the bait word, suggesting optimism and possibility, but the method is morally suspect: take it all.

The second sentence sharpens the provocation by recruiting the language of wellness and rationality. “Healthier” and “decisions” sound like therapy-speak, bureaucratic and responsible, which makes “entirely selfish” sting harder. Brookner’s subtext is that much of what passes for generosity is actually confusion: a life spent managing guilt, obligation, and social performance. Selfishness, in this frame, becomes a kind of hygiene, a way to stop living by committee.

As a historian, Brookner is attuned to the stories societies tell to keep people in line: duty, sacrifice, propriety. The quote reads like an antidote to those scripts, especially the ones disproportionately handed to women and caretakers. It’s not a simple rallying cry for narcissism; it’s a wary acknowledgment that “selflessness” is often a cover for coercion. The irony is that the most “selfish” stance can produce the least distorted choices: clearer motives, fewer resentments, fewer invisible bargains.