Ayn Rand on Greatness

Considering greatness, the antithesis it stirs within its enemies, Ayn Rand addresses in her classic work, “Atlas Shrugged”, the dividing line between those who are truly great, and those who desire its attributes. Hank Rearden, great for introducing a new metal stronger than steel into the world, sees his former wife Lillian as a soul who relished in the rewards of hard work, absent the effort and initiative such hard work required.

“The lust that drives other to enslave an empire, had become, in her limits, a passion for power over him. She had set out to break him, as if, unable to equal his value, she could surpass it be destroying it, as if the measure of his greatness would thus become the measure of hers, as if – he thought with a shudder – as if the vandal who smashed a statue were greater than the artist who made it, as the murderer who killed a child were greater than the mother who had given it birth.”