"There are two fundamentally differing foundations on which systems of morality have traditionally been based. One is the pride of achievement; the other is the resentment felt against those who achieve by those who do not." (pp. 7f.)
"If a society, especially its upper and middle classes, strongly identifies with the morality of achievement, resentments will be seen for what they are - the complaints of undisciplined failures..." (pp. 8f.)
"To be an achiever is, at bottom, to identify with those who shoulder the responsibilities for keeping society's machinery running and not with those who seek to draw from it a free ride." (p. 9)
"Achievers do not act out of a sense of guilt or obligation; they are driven onward by a sense of abundant, overflowing life. They create not merely because they desire to enjoy the fruits of their labor - which they do - but because of an inner fire urging them onward. ... Every achiever makes a contribution, large or small, to the continuation and advance of civilization." (p. 10)
"The resentful, on the other hand, are motivated almost exclusively by their envy and hatred of those who are more self-disciplined and more successful. There is no positive aspect to resentment; the resentful person has no workable plan for improving his situation, since the accomplishment of any ambitious goal requires real achievement. The resentful loathe the rich and complex civilization they see around them, which was built in spite of their surly noncompliance and their occasional attacks against those whose tireless exertions keep everything going. Civilization is the sum total of all its achievements, large and small, and the resentful feel the urge to randomly strike out at all aspects of civilization, no matter where or how they are manifested." (pp. 10 f.)
"In youth, resentments often take the form of petty vandalism.... In later life, resentment may escalate into far greater violence, or it may be repressed just enough to allow the resentful person to hold down a job, although no one who is profoundly resentful will ever succeed in any job requiring any degree of self-discipline or initiative. Resentment is success-bashing." (p. 11)
"To the achiever, these sentiments are alien. If he does not like a situation, he sets about to improve it as best he can or to escape it if he must. The achiever is eager to help those less successful than he, acting not because he feels any guilt or obligation to do so but purely out of the enjoyment of being helpful. The achiever takes an extremely positive view of existence and is willing - even eager - to help others, which delights his sense of joyful abundance. He most emphatically does not believe that the nonachiever is morally superior; indeed, it would give him enormous pleasure to help a nonachiever become a success. Guilt is the emotion felt by those achievers who have been persuaded that resentment is morally superior to achievement, and thus that those who are chronic failures in life are more worthy than those who succeed." (pp. 11f.)
"Resentment is not to be confused with rebellion. ... Rebellion may be necessary when a ruling group does not respect the rights of others or fails to display such values as honesty, fairness, and tolerance, thereby showing itself unfit to rule." (p. 25)
"And what is to be done about those individuals who are so bristling with resentment that - at least in the present stage of their lives - they steadfastly resist all efforts to assist them in learning some marketable skill? In this instance, the person of ability and taste can do nothing else but sadly sigh and look the other way." (p. 30)
"Most people think that aristocracy means 'rule by a hereditary elite.' But it does not. It is derived from the Greek word aristos, meaning 'the best.' Aristocracy literally means 'rule by the best,' (p. 36)
"Some people believe that low-income people steal what they need because they are poor. But the reverse is true: many of these people are poor because they think that wealth is best acquired through theft. ... Furthermore, if poor people were indeed stealing to meet their daily needs, there would be more stealing of staple items like food and clothing - not luxury items like stereos, cameras, jewelry...." (p. 37)
"Christianity, with its hostility toward worldly success and its promotion of suffering and guilt, succeeded in reversing economic growth and stifling learning for a full millennium. Even today, Christian values hold millions of individuals and even entire countries in dismal poverty as they attempt to honor the dictate 'Blessed are the Poor,' and sacrifice success in the life they have now for the illusion of happiness in a promised life to follow." (p. 45)
"...achievers not only expect to pay their own way, but support their own dependent families, contribute to the support of causes deemed worthy, and nonetheless manage to support the non-working poor through taxation." (p.45)
"There is no establishment keeping the poor 'in their place'; the poor do that to each other most effectively through the rigid enforcement of achievement-hating, lower-class values." (p. 49)
"Of course, no one deliberately chooses poverty, but many do wish idly for affluence without choosing to develop those traits which makes affluence attainable: self-discipline, careful planning, and scrupulous honesty." (p. 61)
"They diligently strive not to become learned or successful, but to become ultimately 'cool.' ... To be fully 'cool' is to explicitly and emphatically reject all achievement-oriented values, especially disciplined work and civilized behavior." (p. 63)
"...in spite of our best efforts, there will always be some students who can not, or will not, become achievers, and who become abusive of those who are. What can we do with those who cannot become achievers? We must teach them to get out of the way of those who can." (p. 73)
"Many pious Christians spend every Sunday morning renouncing material success, and then spend the next five or six days pursuing it. Many university professors sanctimoniously pontificate against the material success of achievers and bewail the privations of the terminally inept, then throw themselves into a fanatically intense competition for professional achievement and recognition." (p. 84)
"If they [the resentful] try to [run alongside us], let us 'compassionately hold out our hand to catch them and help them try to become runners like us." (p. 180)
"It is noble to feel great sympathy for the truly helpless: the very young, the very old, the very sick, and the infirm... It is profoundly noble to help them...." (p. 185)