--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: How much self-love comes in the guise of…" description: "\"“How much self-love comes in the guise of selfless devotion!”\" — Susan Sontag" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/susan-sontag-332_devotion_how-much-self-love-comes-in-the-guise-of_2437859.jpg" --- # How much self-love comes in the guise of selfless devotion! ![“How much self-love comes in the guise of selfless devotion!” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/susan-sontag-332_devotion_how-much-self-love-comes-in-the-guise-of_2437859.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/susan-sontag-332_devotion_how-much-self-love-comes-in-the-guise-of_2437859.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/susan-sontag-332_devotion_how-much-self-love-comes-in-the-guise-of_2437859.jpg) > ““How much self-love comes in the guise of selfless devotion!”” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Self‑love can masquerade as selflessness, blurring genuine altruism. **In simple terms:** Self‑love sometimes pretends to be selfless. Key Takeaway Distinguish true altruism from ego‑driven acts. Themes self‑love altruism identity Mood reflective critical Type philosophical analytical When to use this quote - volunteering - charitable work - personal relationships - self‑care routines Key Concepts psychology of motive ethical behavior Questions to Reflect On - When does self‑care become self‑promotion? - How can we assess genuine altruism? A Different Perspective Risk of over‑generalizing motivations. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Devotion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/devotion/) [Pretense](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pretense/) [Religion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/religion/) [Self love](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/self-love/) [Selfless](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/selfless/) [Selflessness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/selflessness/) ## Related quotes > [“with faith,discipline and selfless devotion to the duty,there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/muhammad-ali-jinnah/with-faith-discipline-and-selfless-devotion-to-the-duty-there-is/) [Muhammad Ali Jinnah](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/muhammad-ali-jinnah/) > [“I want to live not for selfish gain, but for selfless devotion.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tanner-di-bella/i-want-to-live-not-for-selfish-gain-but-for-selfless-devotion/) Tanner Di Bella > [“DEVOTION TO GOD’S KINGDOM OVER SELF OR TRIBE ENABLES SACRIFICE People in a church with movement dynamics put the vision ahead of their own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-keller/devotion-to-god-s-kingdom-over-self-or-tribe-enables-sacrifice-people/) [Timothy Keller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-keller/) > [Our compassion and acts of selflessness take us to the deeper truths.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mata-amritanandamayi/our-compassion-and-acts-of-selflessness-take-us-to-the-deeper-truths/) [Mata Amritanandamayi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mata-amritanandamayi/) > [“You shouldn’t live for yourself alone but you must also learn to live the Christian life”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sunday-adelaja/you-shouldn-t-live-for-yourself-alone-but-you-must-also-learn-to-live/) [Sunday Adelaja](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sunday-adelaja/) > [“We should be selfless in our practice as believers”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sunday-adelaja/we-should-be-selfless-in-our-practice-as-believers/) [Sunday Adelaja](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sunday-adelaja/) > [Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shunryu-suzuki/our-practice-should-be-based-on-the-ideal-of-selflessness/) [Shunryu Suzuki](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shunryu-suzuki/) > [Desire is the root of selfishness; clear your heart of desire and be selfless. Selflessness is the key to inner peace.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christofer-drew/desire-is-the-root-of-selfishness-clear-your-heart-of-desire-and-be/) [Christofer Drew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christofer-drew/) > [“Self-serving biases and self-centered agendas are cotton jammed in the ears of our conscience. Even if truth shouts, we can’t hear it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/craig-d-lounsbrough/self-serving-biases-and-self-centered-agendas-are-cotton-jammed-in/) [Craig D. Lounsbrough](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/craig-d-lounsbrough/) > [You will have to make up for the smallness of your size by your courage and selfless devotion to duty, for it is not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/muhammad-ali-jinnah/you-will-have-to-make-up-for-the-smallness-of-your-size-by-your/) [Muhammad Ali Jinnah](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/muhammad-ali-jinnah/) > [“Paltry supply with capable means is one face of iniquity.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andy-harglesis/paltry-supply-with-capable-means-is-one-face-of-iniquity/) [Andy Harglesis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andy-harglesis/) > [“Sometimes you have to close your eyes to see, but you always have to cease talking to listen.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aegelis/sometimes-you-have-to-close-your-eyes-to-see-but-you-always-have-to/) [Aegelis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aegelis/) > [“An effective life is a selfless one”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sunday-adelaja/an-effective-life-is-a-selfless-one/) [Sunday Adelaja](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sunday-adelaja/) > [“Some of our friends are our friends only because we used to be friends.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mokokoma-mokhonoana/some-of-our-friends-are-our-friends-only-because-we-used-to-be-friends/) [Mokokoma Mokhonoana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mokokoma-mokhonoana/) > [“Witnessing a selfless act brings tears to remind us how we should be treating others.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryant-mcgill/witnessing-a-selfless-act-brings-tears-to-remind-us-how-we-should-be/) [Bryant McGill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryant-mcgill/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/unfortunately-moral-beauty-in-art-like-physical-beauty-in-a-person-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/like-the-collector-the-photographer-is-animated-by-a-passion-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? It’s biologically + psychologically too turbulent a time to be cooped up inside, made to sit all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/why-not-eliminate-schooling-between-age-12-16-it-s-biologically/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-photograph-people-is-to-violate-them-by-seeing-them-as-they-never/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Devotion quotes > [Social responsibility above the level of family, or at most of tribe, requires imagination-- devotion, loyalty, all the higher virtues -- which a man…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-a-heinlein/social-responsibility-above-the-level-of-family-or-at-most-of-tribe/) [Robert A. Heinlein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-a-heinlein/) > [Devotion required by the Gita is no soft-hearted effusiveness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/devotion-required-by-the-gita-is-no-soft-hearted-effusiveness/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [In freedom can be found many devotions: a devotion to love, a desire to believe, a willingness to be happy, a perseverance to have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/in-freedom-can-be-found-many-devotions-a-devotion-to-love-a-desire-to/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I can remember coming downstairs before school every day and my mom would be reading her Bible and doing her devotion and praying. Both…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mike-fisher/i-can-remember-coming-downstairs-before-school-every-day-and-my-mom/) [Mike Fisher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mike-fisher/) > [I have fallen in love with you my angel. I sought nothing of you but only to see that dazzling smile of yours once…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahmoud-el-hallab/i-have-fallen-in-love-with-you-my-angel-i-sought-nothing-of-you-but/) [Mahmoud El Hallab](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahmoud-el-hallab/) > [The discipline of daily devotion to God undergirds decisions.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edwin-louis-cole/the-discipline-of-daily-devotion-to-god-undergirds-decisions/) [Edwin Louis Cole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edwin-louis-cole/) > [I’d never known it was possible to love as he did— with complete devotion yet devoid of promises.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ann-aguirre/i-d-never-known-it-was-possible-to-love-as-he-did-with-complete/) [Ann Aguirre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ann-aguirre/) > [Every Holy Mass, heard with devotion, produces in our souls marvelous effects, abundant spiritual and material graces which we, ourselves, do not know...It is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pio-of-pietrelcina/every-holy-mass-heard-with-devotion-produces-in-our-souls-marvelous/) [Pio of Pietrelcina](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pio-of-pietrelcina/) > [Daily simple, sincere, and mighty prayers lift our lives to a higher spiritual altitude. In our prayers we praise God, give thanks to Him,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dieter-f-uchtdorf/daily-simple-sincere-and-mighty-prayers-lift-our-lives-to-a-higher/) [Dieter F. Uchtdorf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dieter-f-uchtdorf/) > [True love is like religion. It is full of devotion and free of doubt.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kedar-joshi/true-love-is-like-religion-it-is-full-of-devotion-and-free-of-doubt/) [Kedar Joshi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kedar-joshi/) > [Never despise a drink because it is easy to make and/or uses commercial mixes. Unquestioning devotion to authenticity is, in any department of life,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kingsley-amis/never-despise-a-drink-because-it-is-easy-to-make-and-or-uses/) [Kingsley Amis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kingsley-amis/) > [“It didn’t break the trance. She wasn’t sure that anything could, and briefly wondered if they’d stay like this until flesh rotted away from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ashton-morgan/it-didn-t-break-the-trance-she-wasn-t-sure-that-anything-could-and/) Ashton Morgan > [“Godliness is a devotion to God.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lailah-gifty-akita/godliness-is-a-devotion-to-god/) [Lailah Gifty Akita](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lailah-gifty-akita/) > [Devotion is when your involvement with life is so absolute that you yourself do not matter anymore.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jaggi-vasudev/devotion-is-when-your-involvement-with-life-is-so-absolute-that-you/) [Jaggi Vasudev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jaggi-vasudev/) > [The general public have a warped view of the speed at which an investigation proceeds. They like to imagine tense conversations going on behind…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ben-aaronovitch/the-general-public-have-a-warped-view-of-the-speed-at-which-an/) [Ben Aaronovitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ben-aaronovitch/) [Browse all 1,481 Devotion quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/devotion/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“How much self-love comes in the guise of selfless devotion!”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/how-much-self-love-comes-in-the-guise-of-selfless-devotion/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Devotion" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/how-much-self-love-comes-in-the-guise-of-selfless-devotion/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/susan-sontag-332_devotion_how-much-self-love-comes-in-the-guise-of_2437859.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/susan-sontag-332_devotion_how-much-self-love-comes-in-the-guise-of_2437859.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/susan-sontag-332_devotion_how-much-self-love-comes-in-the-guise-of_2437859.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“How much self-love comes in the guise of selfless devotion!” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Susan Sontag", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“How much self-love comes in the...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/how-much-self-love-comes-in-the-guise-of-selfless-devotion/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/how-much-self-love-comes-in-the-guise-of-selfless-devotion/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```