Men are different from beasts. —Mencius.
The world is bustling, all for profit; The world is crowded, all for profit. ——Sima Qian: "Historical Records: The Biography of the Colonies".
Gentlemen and beasts, only fight for the first line. - Wang Fuzhi.
Man is the most outstanding of all animals when he attains the perfection of virtue; But if he insists on doing his own thing, without law and justice, he becomes the worst of all beasts. —Aristotle.
If we have a slight understanding of human nature, we will believe that for the vast majority of people, profit is the dominant principle; Almost everyone is affected by it to some degree. – George Washington.
The fact that man is in the animal kingdom has determined that man can never completely get rid of his animal nature, so the question can always be more or less. —Engels, The Complete Works of Man, Vol. 3.
As soon as there is a proper profit, capital is emboldened. If there is a 10% profit, it has to be guaranteed to be used everywhere; With a 20% profit, it becomes active; With a 50% profit, it takes risks; For the sake of 100% profit, it dares to trample on all human laws; With a 300% profit, it dares to commit any crime, even risking hanging its head. - Enge.
The tendency of powerful people to encroach on the powerless is a great feature of human life. —Montesquieu, On the Spirit of Law
Everyone seeks to leverage quality capital to maximize its value. Generally speaking, he does not seek to promote the public welfare, nor does he know how much he actually promotes, but only pursues his personal interests and gains. But as he did so, there was an "invisible hand" guiding him to help achieve another goal, one that was not what he intended to pursue. By pursuing personal interests, increasing social wealth and promoting social interests is more effective than what he can get when he really wants to promote social benefits. —Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
The nature of animals is to enjoy pleasure and avoid suffering, and the nature of human beings is to have good interests and evils, and there is an essential difference between the two. Those who like to gain and evil will have rewards and fears punishment, so everyone has the self-interest of good and evil, and rewards and fears punishment. Saying that human nature is self-interested is a statement of facts, and it is not the same as saying that human nature is evil. The question of good and evil arises only when people behave differently in their own interests. It is not a theoretical assumption to say that human nature is self-interested, but it is a fact. Not only are economic people self-interested, political people are self-interested, but also moral people are self-interested. Even the noblest moral man acts in pursuit of the interests he values. Therefore, no one is self-interested. - Han Dongping: Why assume that human nature is self-interested.
If we do not pay more attention to material interests, we can do it to a small number of advanced elements, but not to the broad masses, for a period of time, but not for a long time. The revolutionary spirit is very precious, and without it there can be no revolutionary action. However, revolution is born on the basis of material interests, and if we only talk about the spirit of sacrifice and not material interests, it is idealism. -- Emancipate the mind, seek truth from facts, and look forward in unity".
Subjective meaning and value are decisive factors for human behavior, because of the projection of subjective meaning, people have value, have a purpose, and are pursuing the purpose of value. Therefore, man is not only a rational animal, but also an animal with a sense of value and the pursuit of purpose. ——Zhang Hao: Dark Consciousness and Democratic Tradition.