The three cardinal values of the Objectivist ethics—the three values which,
together, are the means to and the realization of one’s ultimate value, one’s
own life—are: Reason, Purpose, Self-Esteem, with their three corresponding
virtues: Rationality, Productiveness, Pride.
Productive work is the central purpose of a rational man’s life, the central
value that integrates and determines the hierarchy of all his other values.
Reason is the source, the precondition of his productive work—pride is the
result.