Quote #132

Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to achieve, but to give. Yet one cannot give that which has not been created. Creation comes before distribution- or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement.

More from Ayn Rand

  1. Men have been taught that the ego is the synonym of evil, and selflessness the ideal of virtue. But the creator is the egoist in the absolu…
  2. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason.
  3. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a …
  4. My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productiv…
  5. Man's character is the product of his premises.
  6. Neither life nor happiness can be achieved by the pursuit of irrational whims. Just as a man is free to attempt to survive by any random me…
  7. Man cannot survive except by gaining knowledge, and reason is his only means to gain it. Reason is the faculty that perceives, identifies a…
  8. No concept man forms is valid unless he integrates it without contradiction into the sum of his knowledge.

All Ayn Rand quotes