"Miss Taggart, do you know the hallmark of the second-rater? It's resentment of another man's achievement. Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own—they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal— for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire. They bare their teeth at you from out of their rat holes, thinking that you take pleasure in letting your brilliance dim them—while you'd give a year of your life to see a flicker of talent anywhere among them. They envy achievement, and their dream of greatness is a world where all men have become their acknowledged inferiors. They don't know that that dream is the infallible proof of mediocrity, because that sort of world is what the man of achievement would not be able to bear."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 358 ; Dr. Robert Stadler to Dagny Taggart
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. It was Rand's fourth, longest, and last novel, and she considered it her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing.
115 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Atlas Shrugged →
Related Quotes
"He liked to observe emotions; they were like red lanterns strung along the dark unknown of another's personality, mar…"
"She was twelve years old when she told Eddie Willers that she would run the railroad when they grew up. She was fifte…"
"There is no necessity for pain—why, then, is the worst pain reserved for those who will not accept its necessity?—we …"
"It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of …"
"Man? What is man? He's just a collection of chemicals with delusions of grandeur."
"I don't like people who speak or think in terms of gaining anybody's confidence. If one's actions are honest, one doe…"
"Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find th…"
"He saw for the first time that he had never known fear because, against any disaster, he had held the omnipotent cure…"
"As the tunnel came closer, they saw, at the edge of the sky far to the south, in a void of space and rock, a spot of …"
"Who is John Galt?"