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Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand Quotes

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Famous Ayn Rand Quotes

“Whatever may be open to disagreement, there is one act of evil that may not, the act that no man may commit against others and no man may sanction or forgive. So long as men desire to live together, no man may initiate—do you hear me? no man may start—the use of physical force against others.”

MenMayLongUseTogetherDesireEvilForceForgivingCommitDisagreementSanctionsInitiateDesire To LivePhysical ForceActs Of Evil
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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“A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort, or enslaves him, or attempts to limit the freedom of his mind, or compels him to act against his own rational judgment-a society that sets up a conflict between its edicts and the requirements of man’s nature—is not, strictly speaking, a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang-rule.”

MenMindTogetherIndividualEffortProductsConflictLimitsJudgmentRationalRequirementsGang
Book:The virtue of selfishness: a new concept of egoism
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“Through all the centuries of the worship of the mindless, whatever stagnation humanity chose to endure, whatever brutality to practice-it was only by the grace of the men who perceived that wheat must have water in order to grow, that stones laid in a curve will form an arch, that two and two make four, that love is not served by torture and life is not fed by destruction-only by the grace of those men did the rest of them learn to experience moments when they caught the spark of being human.”

MenHumansTwoMomentsFormLife IsHumanityOrderGrowsWaterLove IsPracticeGraceFourCenturyHe ManWorshipStonesDestructionEndureCaughtTortureFedsSparksBeing HumanCurvesBrutalityWheatMindlessStagnationArches
Author:Ayn Rand
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“An animal is equipped for sustaining its life; its senses provide it with an automatic code of action, an automatic knowledge of what is good for it or evil... Man has no automatic code of survival. His particular distinction from all other living species is the necessity to act in the face of alternatives by means of volitional choice.”

MenMeanActionFacesChoicesEvilAnimalParticularSurvivalSpeciesSensesAlternativesCodeDistinctionSustainingEvil Man
Book:Philosophy: Who Needs It
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“Man has been called a rational being, but rationality is a matter of choice... Man has to be a man-by choice; he has to hold his life as a value-by choice; he has to learn to sustain it-by choice; he has to discover the values it requires and practice his virtues by choice. A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.”

MenHas BeensMatterValuesChoicesPracticeVirtueMoralityAcceptedRationalCodeRationalityBe A Man
Book:Philosophy: Who Needs It
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“A morality that holds need as a claim, holds emptiness-non-existence-as its standard of value; it rewards an absence, a defect: weakness, inability, incompetence, suffering, disease, disaster, the lack, the fault, the flaw-the zero.”

NeedsSufferingValuesExistenceMoralityDiseaseStandardsWeaknessClaimsFaultsRewardsAbsenceDisasterEmptinessFlawsZeroDefectsInabilityIncompetenceNon Existence
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“I am an innovator. This is a term of distinction, a term of honor, rather than something to hide or apologize for. Anyone who has new or valuable ideas to offer stands outside the intellectual status quo. But the status quo is not a stream, let alone a 'mainstream'. It is a stagnant swamp. It is the innovators who carry mankind forward.”

IdeasTermMankindHonorOffersIntellectualValuableStreamsDistinctionMainstreamApologizingStatus QuoStanding OutInnovatorsStagnantSwamps
Author:Ayn Rand
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“Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy . . . Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values, and finds his joy in nothing but rational actions.”

MenStatesActionJoyDesireValuesGoalHe ManRationalContradictoryJoy Happiness
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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“Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it-that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life-that the vilest form of self-abasement and self-destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of an authority over your brain, the acceptance of his assertions as facts, his say-so as truth, his edicts as middle-man between your consciousness and your existence.”

ThinkingMenMindSelfFactsHelpingFormCan DoExistenceBrainConsciousnessResponsibilityMiddleAcceptanceAuthorityJudgmentDestructionIndependenceRecognitionOver YouSubstitutesLive Your LifeAssertionSelf DestructionSubordinationAbasement
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”-not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form-by giving presents to one's friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .”

WayGivingFactsHappinessFormExpressionMaterialsFriendsAspectHappyChristmasCardsNovelistsRepentanceCharmingRemembranceCheerfulRepentWeepingGood WillMerryBenevolenceGoodwillBenevolentTokensInspirational ChristmasMerry ChristmasChristmas Card
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“If a life could have a theme song - and I believe every worthwhile one has - mine is a religion, an obsession, a mania or all of these expressed in one word - individualism. I was born with that obsession, and I've never seen and do not know now a cause more worthy, more misunderstood, more seemingly hopeless and tragically needed.”

IfsKnowsLifeBelieveSongBeliefI BelieveCausesBornMinesNeededWorthyObsessionThemeHopelessIndividualismWorthwhileMisunderstoodOne WordMania
Author:Ayn Rand
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“If you want to know the one reason that's taking me back, I'll tell you: I cannot bring myself to abandon to destruction all the greatness of the world, all that which was mine and yours, which was made by us and is still ours by right - because I cannot believe that men refuse to see, that they can remain blind and deaf to us forever, when the truth is ours and their lives depend on accepting it.”

IfsKnowsMenWorldWantLifeBelieveLongMadeStillsReasonDesireBeliefLosesAcceptingForeverGreatnessMinesDependsTruth IsBattleDestructionBlindRefuseAbandonDeafDesire To Live
Author:Ayn Rand
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“The lust that drives others to enslave an empire, had become, in her limits, a passion for power over him. She had set out to break him, as if, unable to equal his value, she could surpass it by destroying it, as if the measure of his greatness would thus become the measure of hers, as if the vandal who smashed a statue were greater than the artist who had made it, as if the murderer who killed a child were greater than the mother who had given it birth.”

IfsChildrenMadeMotherArtistValuesPassionGivenBreakGreaterGreatnessBirthLimitsEqualLustMade ItEmpiresDestroyingMurdererStatuesVandals
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“All "public interest' legislation (and any distribution of money taken by force from some men for the unearned benefit of others) comes down ultimately to the grant of an undefined undefinable, non-objective, arbitrary power to some government officials. The worst aspect of it is not that such a power can be used dishonestly, but that it cannot be used honestly. The wisest man in the world, with the purest integrity, cannot find a criterion for the just, equitable, rational application of an unjust, inequitable, irrational principle.”

MenWorldGovernmentUsedForceInterestLibertyPrinciplesTakenWorstIntegrityBenefitsAspectHonestlyObjectivesRationalOfficialsGrantsApplicationIrrationalLegislationUnjustDistributionArbitraryCriteriaWisestPublic InterestEquitableWisest ManGovernment OfficialsUndefined
Book:Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
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