The relatively benevolent world-view of egoism can be seen clearly in the attitudes of egoists and altruists toward accidents, illness, and other unexpected setbacks. The egoist seeks to minimize accidents and the effects of accidents through an awareness of reality, the exercise of responsibility (e. g., safety measures, insurance, and financial and other forms of preparedness), and a dedication to reality-based principles. The altruist, in contrast, tends to regard accidents as misfortunes, over which we have little or no control as individuals and which render us eternally dependent on the "safety net" of others.

The ethics of egoism, as we have shown in detail, arises from the concept of well-functioning, and the egoist aspires to a maximal state of functioning, providing for the requirements of peak mental and physical health, and encompassing full integration of one's physical systems as well as a healthy self-awareness (cf. pp. 1.4:35-6). Illness is more frequently regarded as a symptom of less-than-optimal functioning, rather than as a burden that one is consigned to bear by fate. The egoist, of course, does not use sickness or injury as a ploy for sympathy or as an excuse for self-pity. Such uses are characteristic of the altruistic view, which associates suffering with moral worth.