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Ayn Rand Quotes

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Famous Ayn Rand Quotes

“It is a matter of record that in the German Election of 1933, the Communist Party was ordered by its leaders to vote for the Nazis - with the explanation that they could later fight the Nazis for power, but first they had to help destroy their common enemy : capitalism and its parliamentary form of government.”

FirstsMatterHelpingGovernmentFormFightingPartyCommonLeaderEnemyRecordsCapitalismVoteElectionExplanationCommunistNaziForms Of GovernmentCommunist PartyParliamentaryCommon Enemy
Book:Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
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“The majority of those who are loosely identified by the term 'liberals' are afraid to let themselves discover that what they advocate is statism. They want to keep all the advantages and effects of capitalism, while destroying the cause, and they want to establish statism without its necessary effects. They do not want to know or to admit that they are the champions of dictatorship and slavery.”

KnowsWantCausesTermEffectsCapitalismAdvantageSlaveryMajorityChampionDestroyingDictatorship
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“If [people] place such things as friendship and family ties above their own productive work, yes, then they are immoral. Friendship, family life and human relationships are not primary in a man's life. A man who places others first, above his own creative work, is an emotional parasite.”

PeopleIfsMenFirstsHumansCreativeEmotionalPrimariesTiesProductiveImmoralFamily LifeHuman RelationsHuman RelationshipsCreative WorkParasitesFamily TiesProductive WorkFriendship And Family
Author:Ayn Rand
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“Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach.”

SoulAbleHeroLonelyAddictionRecoveryYour SoulFrustrationAddictSobrietyDrug AddictionDrugs And AlcoholDrug AddictRecoveringSwampsIrreplaceableAddiction RecoveryAlcohol AddictionDrug Addiction RecoveryOne Tree Hill VoiceoverTree HillAddicts In RecoveryOne Tree Hill OpeningShort One Tree HillOne Tree Hill LifeOne Tree Hill LoveInspirational Addiction RecoveryOvercoming AddictionInspirational RecoveryOne Tree Hill MemorableAlcohol RecoveryDrug RecoveryMotivational RecoveryOne Tree Hill DeathOne Tree Hill InspirationalInspirational Drug RecoveryLonely Path
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“Indiscriminate tolerance and indiscriminate condemnation are not two opposites: they are two variants of the same evasion. To declare that “everybody is white” or “everybody is black” or “everybody is neither white nor black, but gray,” is not a moral judgment, but an escape from the responsibility of moral judgment.”

TwoBlackWhiteResponsibilityMoralJudgmentOppositesToleranceGrayCondemnationEvasionMoral JudgmentTwo Opposites
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“If men want to oppose war, it is statism that they must oppose. So long as they hold the tribal notion that the individual is sacrificial fodder for the collective, that some men have the right to rule others by force, and that some (any) alleged “good” can justify it-there can be no peace within a nation and no peace among nations.”

IfsMenWantLongWarIndividualForceNationsNotionCollectivesJustifyIndividualismCollectivismTribalismPeace WithinIndividuationFodderCollectivity
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“No advocate of reason can claim the right to force his ideas on others. No advocate of the free mind can claim the right to force the minds of others. No rational society, no co-operation, no agreement, no understanding, no discussion are possible among men who propose to substitute guns for rational persuasion.”

MenMindIdeasReasonForceUnderstandingGunClaimsRationalDiscussionOperationsAgreementSubstitutesPersuasionPropose
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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“A BUSINESSMAN cannot force you to buy his product; if he makes a mistake, He suffers the consequences; if he fails, he takes the loss. A bureaucrat, forces you to obey his decisions, whether you agree with him or not... If he makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences; If he fails, He passes the loss on to you, in the form of heavier taxes.”

IfsFormSufferingForceLossDecisionMistakeFailingProductsTaxesConsequenceAgreeBusinessmanBureaucrats
Author:Ayn Rand
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“Of all the statist violations of individual rights in a mixed economy, the military draft is the worst. It is an abrogation of rights. It negates man’s fundamental right-the right to life-and establishes the fundamental principle of statism: that a man’s life belongs to the state, and the state may claim it by compelling him to sacrifice it in battle. Once that principle is accepted, the rest is only a matter of time.”

MenMayMatterStatesIndividualPrinciplesEconomyRightsSacrificeWorstMilitaryBattleClaimsFundamentalsAcceptedCompellingViolationIndividual RightsRight To LifeFundamental PrinciplesMatter Of TimeMixed Economy
Book:Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
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“Individualism regards man - every man - as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being. Individualism holds that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful co-existence among men, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights - and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members.”

MenFormIndividualExistenceRightsGroupsSocietyMembersBasesRegardIndependentEvery ManRationalPeacefulRecognitionCivilizedCooperationAssociationIndividualismEntitySovereignIndividual RightsCivilized Society
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“The three values which men had held for centuries and which have now collapsed are: mysticism, collectivism, altruism. Mysticism — as a cultural power — died at the time of the Renaissance. Collectivism — as a political ideal — died in World War II. As to altruism — it has never been alive. It is the poison of death in the blood of Western civilization, and men survived it only to the extent to which they neither believed nor practiced it.”

MenWorldWarPoliticalValuesThreeAliveBloodCenturyCivilizationIdealsDiedWesternWar Of The WorldsPoisonMysticismWorld War IiIndividualismWorld War ISurvivedAltruismRenaissanceCollectivismWestern Civilization
Author:Ayn Rand
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“[Altruism] is a moral system which holds that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the sole justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, value and virtue. This is the moral base of collectivism, of all dictatorships.”

MenSelfValuesExistenceMoralVirtueSacrificeDutyHighestSakeIndividualismSoleJustificationDictatorshipAltruismService To OthersSelf SacrificeCollectivismMoral Duty
Author:Ayn Rand
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“Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage-the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterologic al traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry.”

MenBodyFormPoliticalSocialMoralIntellectualRacismNotionInternalsSignificanceAlsChemistryTraitsPrimitiveLowestCollectivismLineageBody Chemistry
Book:The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution
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“A majority vote is not an epistemological validation of an idea. Voting is merely a proper political device--within a strictly, constitutionall y delimited sphere of action--for choosing the practical means of implementing a society’s basic principles. But those principles are not determined by vote.”

MeanIdeasActionPoliticalPrinciplesVoteMajorityDeterminedPracticalsVotingDevicesSpheresValidationBasic PrinciplesImplementingMajority Vote
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They come to be accepted by degrees, by dint of constant pressure on one side and constant retreat on the other - until one day when they are suddenly declared to be the country's official ideology.”

CountryTodaySidesTomorrowOne DayDegreesPressureConstantAcceptedIdeologyOfficialsAbsurdityRetreatSlogans
Book:The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution
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“Every dictator is a mystic, and every mystic is a potential dictator. A mystic craves obedience from men, not their agreement. He wants them to surrender their consciousness to his assertions, his edicts, his wishes, his whims - as his consciousness is surrendered to theirs. He wants to deal with men by means of faith and force - he finds no satisfaction in their consent if he must earn it by means of facts and reason.”

IfsMenWantMeanReasonFactsForceWishDealsConsciousnessSatisfactionSurrenderObedienceAgreementDictatorConsentCraveCravingMysticAssertionWhimDictating
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“Abortion is a moral right-which should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved; morally, nothing other than her wish in the matter is to be considered. Who can conceivably have the right to dictate to her what disposition she is to make of the functions of her body?”

ShouldMatterBodyLeftWishMoralInvolvedFunctionAbortionSoleDispositionDiscretion
Book:The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought
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“Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value.”

MenGivingAbleValuesWishDealsPrinciplesProduceMaterialsShapesToolsTradeGoodsObjectivismAtlasValue Of MoneyMoney Is The Root Of All EvilMoney Is EvilMoochers
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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