66 Entitlement Quotes to Remind You to Remain Humble

Whether it's time, money, services, favors, and so much more, entitled individuals feel slighted when life does not go their way. By reading the 66 quotes below, discover more about the lens that these individuals look through.

It is never a pleasure to meet or be around an entitled individual. They constantly feel as though they are the victim and deserve special treatment, and if something does not go their way, they may have something akin to an adult version of a tantrum.

Entitlement is born out of many things. Individuals may be narcissistic, have a sheltered upbringing, or have grown up with a large amount of money, among other contributing factors. Use these 66 quotes to learn more about this poisonous attribute and how we can recognize and combat it in our lives.

Criss Jami’s quote: "Man is not, by nature, deserving of all that he wants. When we think that we are automatically entitled to something, that is when we start walking all over others to get it." | Image: AmoDays

Quotes on the Poisonous Nature of Entitlement

"In short, if one is entitled to everything, then one is thankful for nothing." ― Christopher Peterson

"Whether perpetrators abuse strategically or on impulse, however, they usually have one thing in common: a supercharged sense of entitlement." ― Jess Hill

"Entitlement was, she knew, a terrible thing. It chained the person to their victimhood. It gobbled up all the air around it. Until the person lived in a vacuum, where nothing good could flourish." ― Louise Penny

"The problem with entitlement is that it makes people need to feel good about themselves all the time, even at the expense of others around them." ― Mark Manson

"Man is not, by nature, deserving of all that he wants. When we think that we are automatically entitled to something, that is when we start walking all over others to get it." ― Criss Jami

Christopher Peterson’s quote: "In short, if one is entitled to everything, then one is thankful for nothing." | Image: AmoDays

"Entitlement is lethal." ― Liev Schreiber

"No one owes you anything. If we live our lives expecting people to hand us anything, we'll not only alienate all of our friends, but we'll create a situation where our value is puffed up and manufactured and not based on our actual value. When something goes wrong, when crisis comes, we are left feeling bankrupt." ― Josh Hatcher

"It is easy when you are young to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it." ― Jon Krakauer

Quotes on Destroying Entitlement

Brené Brown’s quote: "What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude." | Image: AmoDays

"Grace destroys entitlement." – Justin Buzzard

"An attitude of thanksgiving will thrive, and it will breathe life into any place where a heart of appreciation and gratitude refuses to give way to a brooding sense of entitlement, the scourge of greed, or any other lesser attitudes that keep company with such things." ― Craig D. Lounsbrough

"What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude." ― Brené Brown

"Thankfulness eradicated entitlement." – Perry Noble

Toyin Omofoye’s quote: "To cultivate gratitude, we must first uproot the weeds of pride, entitlement, and comparison that choke out our blessings." | Image: AmoDays

"Coming from a place of humility instead of entitlement, and recognizing that you are blessed enough to get the chance to do something, can change everything." ― Jeanette Coron

"Despite the fact that life owes us nothing, it gifts us everything. And if such selflessness were the hallmark of our lives, we would handily transform everyone's life." ― Craig D Lounsbrough

"Feeling entitled is the opposite of feeling grateful. Gratitude opens the heart; entitlement closes it." ― Paul Gibbons

"To cultivate gratitude, we must first uproot the weeds of pride, entitlement, and comparison that choke out our blessings." ― Toyin Omofoye

"Gratitude begins where my sense of entitlement ends." — Steven Furtick

Quotes on Society, Privilege, and Entitlement

Howard Schultz’s quote: "The future of America is not an entitlement. We have been given a treasure chest of gifts and opportunities, but some people are being left behind, and success is not sustainable unless it is shared." | Image: AmoDays

"People who are given whatever they want soon develop a sense of entitlement and rapidly lose their sense of proportion." ― Sarah Churchwell

"I do think that there is both a very powerful sense of entitlement and a kind of bubble of wealth which makes it hard for the people at the very top to understand the travails of the middle class." — Chrystia Freeland

"Incels are not amoral (though they are, of course, highly immoral); they are deep believers in a specific moral order. They feel not merely angry but aggrieved; they are not merely disappointed but resentful. They feel not merely let down but positively betrayed by women in particular and by the world in general. They feel that the world owes them certain favors." ― Kate Manne

"Under the guise of making classes of people victims, those in power seductively enslave the masses through entitlement." ― Marnie Pehrson Kuhns

Candice Bergen’s quote: "Though beauty gives you a weird sense of entitlement, it's rather frightening and threatening to have others ascribe such importance to something you know you're just renting for a while." | Image: AmoDays

"I hate the unfairness of injustice. Anybody who thinks they are better than others or 'chosen' or feel they have an entitlement... be it through monarchy, government, or money. I think we are all born the same. We are entitled to an equal shot at life." ― Liam Cunningham

"Rich people entitlement is a hell of a drug. It doesn't even occur to them that they'll get busted because they brown nose all the right [expletive] at the golf course. Schmooze the right judges. Retain the right attorneys." ― Jess Whitecroft

"The thing that upsets me the most is the entitlement of people that will stand with a flag and say to some other people that they need to go back to where they came from. When, in fact, they also would need to go back to where they came from, because you need to go all the way back to the beginning." — George Lopez

"Letting non-citizens vote jeopardizes our principles as a nation. They vote only for entitlement, not for their own responsibility as citizens." — Charlie Kirk

"The future of America is not an entitlement. We have been given a treasure chest of gifts and opportunities, but some people are being left behind, and success is not sustainable unless it is shared." — Howard Schultz

Steve Maraboli’s quote: "When we replace a sense of service and gratitude with a sense of entitlement and expectation, we quickly see the demise of our relationships, society, and economy." | Image: AmoDays

"I've been taught that human nature is such that the place of privilege most often and most naturally leads to a sense of entitlement. The notion that I deserve to be treated as special because I'm privileged. The truth is, privilege should never lead to entitlement." — Kirk Cousins

"It's the expectations that many white men have that they shouldn't have to climb, shouldn't have to struggle, as others do. It's the idea not only that they think they have less than others but that they were supposed to have so much more. When you are denied the power, the success or even the relationships that you think are your right, you either believe that you are broken, or you believe that you have been stolen from." ― Ijeoma Oluo

"When we replace a sense of service and gratitude with a sense of entitlement and expectation, we quickly see the demise of our relationships, society, and economy." ― Steve Maraboli

"In most Western democracies, you do have the freedom of speech. But freedom of speech is not an entitlement to reach. You are free to say what you want within the confines of hate speech, libel law, and so on. But you are not entitled to have your voice artificially amplified by technology." ― Christopher Wylie

Steven Furtick’s quote: "Gratitude begins where my sense of entitlement ends." | Image: AmoDays

"Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity." ― Mother Teresa

"A person of bourgeois origin goes through life with some expectation of getting what he wants, within reasonable limits. Hence the fact that in times of stress, 'educated' people tend to come to the front; they are no more gifted than the others, and their 'education' is generally quite useless in itself, but they are accustomed to a certain amount of deference and consequently have the cheek necessary to a commander. That they will come to the front seems to be taken for granted, always and everywhere. In Lissagaray's History of the Commune, there is an interesting passage describing the shootings that took place after the Commune had been suppressed. The authorities were shooting the ringleaders, and as they did not know who the ringleaders were, they were picking them out on the principle that those of better class would be the ringleaders. An officer walked down a line of prisoners, picking out likely-looking types. One man was shot because he was wearing a watch, another because he 'had an intelligent face." ― George Orwell

"Didn't it seem like really thin, gorgeous people were always so mean? Where did they get that aura of entitlement? And didn't seem like people always fawned over them even though they behaved badly? Why was that?" ― Lisa Unger

"We live in the age of instant knowledge. And there's almost a sense of entitlement to that." ― J. J. Abrams

"Though beauty gives you a weird sense of entitlement, it's rather frightening and threatening to have others ascribe such importance to something you know you're just renting for a while." — Candice Bergen

Marian Wright Edelman’s quote: "Don't feel entitled to anything you didn't sweat and struggle for." | Image: AmoDays

"Don't feel entitled to anything you didn't sweat and struggle for." — Marian Wright Edelman

"Good results is not an entitlement. It has to be earned and earned each individual working day via the lens of humility." — Howard Schultz

"Sometimes people take it for granted that they had success, especially nowadays when you have instant stardom. A lot of people feel entitlement, and nobody is entitled to anything." — Donny Osmond

"You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight." — Elizabeth Gilbert

Howard Schultz’s quote: "Good results is not an entitlement. It has to be earned and earned each individual working day via the lens of humility." | Image: AmoDays

"We live in the age of entitlement, as opposed to enlightenment." — Bill Bailey

"People read inevitability as entitlement, and the American people want their candidates to sweat for the job. They want them to actually make a case for the job." — Deval Patrick

"I react very badly when mediocrity throws a tantrum of entitlement." — Lee Siegel

More Entitled Quotes

"Entitled people exude a delusional degree of self-confidence. This confidence can be alluring to others, at least for a little while. In some instances, the entitled person's delusional level of confidence can become contagious and help the people around the entitled person feel more confident in themselves too." — Mark Manson

"Narcissists often feign oppression because narcissists always feel entitled." ― Criss Jami

Bill Bailey’s quote: "We live in the age of entitlement, as opposed to enlightenment." | Image: AmoDays

"A government-subsidized economic recovery is not an economic recovery—it's an entitlement state." — Tommy Tuberville

"People shouldn't have everything they want. No one is entitled to their every desire. To live in balance, we must willingly decide not to take all that we can from the world and from others." ― F.C. Yee

"I was so lucky because what I did in 'Thor' was I built the character from the ground up―the foundations of his spirit, really. He was someone who was born with an expectation that he would one day be a king, born with an entitlement." — Tom Hiddleston

"A lot of parents today are terrified that something they say to their children might make them 'feel bad.' But, hey, if they've done something wrong, they should feel bad. Kids with a sense of responsibility, not entitlement, who know when to experience gratitude and humility, will be better at navigating the social shoals of college." — Amy Chua

Lee Siegel’s quote: "I react very badly when mediocrity throws a tantrum of entitlement." | Image: AmoDays

"I'm here today to warn you: I want you to watch out for the adversary. Guard yourself from any spirit of entitlement. Restrain any and all subtle temptation to gain attention or to find ways to promote yourself." — Charles R. Swindoll

"You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant." — Harlan Ellison

"It's important to understand that while honor is an entitlement to respect—and shame comes when you lose that title—a person of honor cares first of all not about being respected but about being worthy of respect." — Kwame Anthony Appiah

"The only thing you should feel entitled to is gratitude." ― J.S. Mason

"I just have this sense of entitlement that I should be able to feel comfortable at all times like I could go to bed at any moment in what I'm wearing." — Amy Schumer

Tommy Tuberville’s quote: "A government-subsidized economic recovery is not an economic recovery—it's an entitlement state." | Image: AmoDays

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." — Daniel Patrick Moynihan

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." — Mark Twain

"Entitlement is an expression of conditional love. Nobody is ever entitled to your love. You always have a right to protect your mental, emotional, and physical well-being by removing yourself from toxic people and circumstances." — Dr. Janice Anderson & Kiersten Anderson

"It's Halloween; everyone is entitled to one good scare." — Charles Cyphers

"An arrogant mind lives in its own little reality where it's entitled to everything." ― VKBoy

Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s quote: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." | Image: AmoDays

Beyond basic human rights, many argue that life does not owe you a single thing. Many will go as far as to say that basic human rights are not even something we are entitled to, but that is a huge debate in and of itself.

At the end of the day, beyond recognizing entitlement in others, we should look at ourselves. Where in our lives do we feel we are owed something, we are victims, or where we are entirely ungrateful? Self-introspection is hardly ever an unhealthy exercise.

To look even deeper into yourself and find out the darker aspects of who you are, read these 49 demon quotes to exorcise your inner darkness.