The Virtue of Elfishness

Yes, a long-lost ethical treatise by Tolkien has been found!

Just kidding.

Really, this post is about this quote from Roger Kimball that struck me:

“Selfishness” can be a vice. It can also be another name for that “well-ordered self-love” that Thomas Aquinas extolled as “right and natural.”

Rand drew a parallel distinction.  She thought "rational selfishness" was good.  But she thought "selfishness without a self" was bad.

Of course, Aquinas and Rand were both following in the footsteps of Aristotle
who thought that love of self should not be throttled.