From the Master’s semi-autobiographical To Sail Beyond the Sunset:
“Gratitude”: An imaginary emotion that rewards an imaginary behavior, “altruism.” Both imaginaries are false faces for selfishness, which is a real and honest emotion. Long ago Mr. Clemens demonstrated in his essay “What is Man?” that every one of us acts at all times in his own interest. Once you understand this, it offers a way to negotiate with an antagonist in order to find means to cooperate with him for mutual benefit. But if you are convinced of your own “altruism” and you try to shame him out of his horrid selfishness, you will get nowhere.
Seems to me this encapsulates a lot of right-vs.-left dialogues these days: the right understands the above; the left, convinced of its altruism, resorts to shame and abuse.
At our wedding, each table bore the name of one of our favorite books. To Sail Beyond the Sunset graced the head table.