Monday, February 02, 2009

Do you know the hallmark of a second-rater?

"Do you know the hallmark of a second-rater? Its 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 man 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 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. They have no way of knowing what he feels when surrounded by inferiors – hatred? No, not hatred, but boredom – the terrible hopeless, draining, paralysing boredom. Of what account are praise and adulation from men whom you don’t respect? Have you ever felt he longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?"

- Ayn Rand, ATLAS SHRUGGED

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

While reading Atlas Shrugged, this quote was, by far one that stuck out the most to me. In a world today were so many demand to be served, and not earn their own way. Excellent book. Superb writing.