--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: If this is vise I want no virtue. ... I…" description: "\"“If this is vise I want no virtue. ... I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happi..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d6a/ayn-rand-59_freedom_if-this-is-vise-i-want-no-virtue-i-know_1849378.jpg" --- # If this is vise I want no virtue. ... I know what… ![“If this is vise I want no virtue. ... I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose. Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to…” quote by Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d6a/ayn-rand-59_freedom_if-this-is-vise-i-want-no-virtue-i-know_1849378.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d6a/ayn-rand-59_freedom_if-this-is-vise-i-want-no-virtue-i-know_1849378.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d6a/ayn-rand-59_freedom_if-this-is-vise-i-want-no-virtue-i-know_1849378.jpg) > ““If this is vise I want no virtue. ... I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose. Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a sacrifice on their altars. ... But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.”” [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The speaker declares happiness as an intrinsic end, not a means, and defines freedom as independence from others’ demands. **In simple terms:** Happiness is its own purpose; freedom means being free from others. Key Takeaway Seek self-defined purpose, reject being a tool for others. Themes individualism autonomy purpose freedom Mood defiant assertive Type philosophical political When to use this quote - personal goal setting - creative work - relationship boundaries - political activism Key Concepts Objectivism existentialism self-actualization Questions to Reflect On - What does it mean to be free from all others? - Can happiness be truly self‑contained? A Different Perspective Freedom can become isolation if taken to extremes. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Free man](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/free-man/) [Freedom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/freedom/) [Happiness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/happiness/) [Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature/) ## Related quotes > [These are the things before me. And as I stand here at the door of glory, I look behind me for the last time.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/these-are-the-things-before-me-and-as-i-stand-here-at-the-door-of/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [“It was a long story and the spirt which moved it was the spirit of man's freedom. But what is freedom? Freedom from what?…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/it-was-a-long-story-and-the-spirt-which-moved-it-was-the-spirit-of/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [But what is freedom? Freedom from what? 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She thought: To find a feeling that would hold, as their sum, as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/there-was-still-one-response-the-greatest-that-she-had-missed-she/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [Inflation is not caused by the actions of private citizens, but by the government: by an artificial expansion of the money supply required to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/inflation-is-not-caused-by-the-actions-of-private-citizens-but-by-the/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [“We are fornicating in the sight of six billion people.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/we-are-fornicating-in-the-sight-of-six-billion-people/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [“She was fifteen when it occurred to her for the first time that women did not run railroads and that people might object. 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And your most…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/have-you-felt-it-too-have-you-seen-how-your-best-friends-love/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [Every coercive monopoly was created by government intervention into the economy: by special privileges, such as franchises or subsidies, which closed the entry of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/every-coercive-monopoly-was-created-by-government-intervention-into/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [We are all brothers under the skin - and I, for one, would be willing to skin humanity to prove it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/we-are-all-brothers-under-the-skin-and-i-for-one-would-be-willing-to/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) [Explore all 1,777 Ayn Rand quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) ## More Free man quotes > [Never in all their history have men been able truly to conceive of the world as one: a single sphere, a globe, having the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/archibald-macleish/never-in-all-their-history-have-men-been-able-truly-to-conceive-of/) [Archibald MacLeish](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/archibald-macleish/) > [“And it was then that the things I've never liked to talk about began. 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