The Virtue of Selfishness

by Ayn Rand

(If one values human life, one cannot value its destroyers.)

If he finds them to be virtuous, he grants them personal, individual value and appreciation, in proportion to their virtues.

It is on the ground of that generalized good will and respect for the value of human life that one helps strangers in an ...

It is important to differentiate between the rules of conduct in an emergency situation and the rules of conduct in the no...

The moral purpose of a man’s life is the achievement of his own happiness.

This does not mean that he is indifferent to all men, that human life is of no value to him and that he has no reason to help others in an emergency. But it does mean that he does not subordinate his life to the welfare of others, that he does not sacrifice himself to their needs, that the relief of their suffering is not his primary concern, that any help he gives is an exception, not a rule, an act of generosity, not of moral duty, that it is marginal and incidental —as disasters are marginal and incidental in the course of human existence—and that values, not disasters, are the goal, the first concern and the motive power of his life. (February 1963)

There is the man who wants a job, but never thinks of discovering what qualifications the job requires or what constitutes doing one’s work well. Who is he to judge? He never made the world. Somebody owes him a living. How? Somehow.

That is the psychology from which all “social reforms” or “welfare states” or “noble experiments” or the destruction of the world have come.

(d) Effort.

He knows that all benefits have to be produced, that the gain of one man does not represent the loss of another, that a man’s achievement is not earned at the expense of those who have not achieved it. Therefore, he never imagines that he has any sort of unearned, unilateral claim on any human being—and he never leaves his interests at the mercy of any one person or single, specific concrete.

Now let us return to the question originally asked—about the two men applying for the same job—and observe in what manner it ignores or opposes these four considerations.

(a) Reality.

(b) Context.

(c) Responsibility.

(d) Effort.

All of the above discussion applies only to the relationships among rational men and only to a free society. In a free society, one does not have to deal with those who are irrational. One is free to avoid them.

In a nonfree society, no pursuit of any interests is possible to anyone; nothing is possible but gradual and general destruction.

Altruism

Aristotle

anti-hero

Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) Automation

“Black-and-White” in Ethics

Capitalism

Collectivism

Compromise

Concepts

Consciousness

“Conservatives”

Constitution of the United States

Contracts Cuba

Declaration of Independence,

Desires

Dictatorship

Egoism; see Selfishness

Emotions

England

Ethical Theories

Ethics, Objectivist

Reason; Rights Evil

Existentialism “Extremism”

Faith

For The New Intellectual (Ayn Rand)

Force

Fountainhead, The (Ayn Rand)

Free Speech

Free Trade

Free Will;

Fre...

Capitalism;...

Frien...