Sublime

An unselfish person is uprooted, uncentered. He is in deep neurosis. He is against nature; he cannot be healthy and whole. He is fighting against the current of life, being, existence—he is trying to be unselfish. He cannot be unselfish—because only a selfish person can be unselfish.

If altruism holds that service to the welfare of others is the essence of the moral life, egoism, in contrast, holds that the pursuit of our own well-being and happiness is our proper moral purpose. If altruism maintains that we belong to others, egoism maintains that we have a right to exist for our own sake. As a moral principle, egoism regards

se atendo à minha natureza, é contínua e fortemente o egoísmo que fala em mim, que me ordena seguir meus interesses em detrimento do interesse dos outros.

Rational egoism does not consist of doing whatever we feel like doing, a policy that can clearly lead to self-destruction. Morality exists for the individual, the individual does not exist for morality; but without reason, thought, and knowledge, egoism is meaningless. The purpose of ethics is not to transcend egoism, but to identify the means by