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The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z

Book by Ayn Rand · 16 quotes · Men, Rights, Values

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The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z Quotes

“My views on charity are very simple. I do not consider it a major virtue and, above all, I do not consider it a moral duty. There is nothing wrong in helping other people, if and when they are worthy of the help and you can afford to help them. I regard charity as a marginal issue. What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue.”

PeopleIfsIdeasHelpingFightingSimpleViewsMoralVirtueIssuesDutyMajorsRegardCharityWorthyHelping OthersPrimariesAffordableIfs AndHelping Other PeopleMoral Duty
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“Why is it immoral for you to desire, but moral for others to do so? Why is it immoral to produce a value and keep it, but moral to give it away? And if it is not moral for you to keep a value, why is it moral for others to accept it? If you are selfless and virtuous when you give it, are they not selfish and vicious when they take it?”

IfsGivingDesireValuesAcceptingMoralProduceSelfishSelfishnessSelflessVirtuousImmoralViciousNot Selfish
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“As a cultural-intellectual power and a moral ideal, collectivism died in World War II. If we are still rolling in its direction, it is only by the inertia of a void and the momentum of disintegration. A social movement that began with the ponderous, brain-cracking, dialectical constructs of Hegel and Marx, and ends up with a horde of morally unwashed children stamping their foot and shrieking: "I want it now is through."”

IfsWorldWantChildrenStillsWarEndsSocialBrainLibertyMoralFeetMovementIntellectualIdealsEconomicsDiedWar Of The WorldsWorld War IiVoidWorld War IRollingConstructsMomentumCollectivismInertiaHordeHegelSocial MovementsDisintegration
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“The moral justification of capitalism does not lie in the altruist claim that it represents the best way to achieve 'the common good.' It is true that capitalism does -- if that catch-phrase has any meaning -- but this is merely a secondary consequence. The moral justification for capitalism lies in the fact that it is the only system consonant with man's rational nature, that it protects man's survival qua man, and that its ruling principle is: justice”

IfsMenWayDoeFactsLyingJusticeCommonMoralPrinciplesAchieveProtectSurvivalCapitalismConsequenceClaimsBest WayRationalPhrasesJustificationRulingCommon GoodConsonantsLaissez Faire Capitalism
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“I can say-not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological , ethical, political and esthetic roots-that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.”

WorldI CanCountryStatesAmericaPoliticalUnitedMoralPrinciplesUnited StatesRootsOriginalsPatrioticEthicalUnited States Of AmericaMetaphysicalFoundingWorld History
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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
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