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The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z

Book by Ayn Rand · 17 quotes · Men, Rights, Values

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The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z Quotes

“The concept of individual rights is so prodigious a feat of political thinking that few men grasp it fully - and two hundred years have not been enough for other countries to understand it. But this is the concept to which we owe our lives - the concept which made it possible for us to bring into reality everything of value that any of us did or will achieve or experience.”

ThinkingMenYearsMadeTwoCountryEnoughRealityPoliticalValuesIndividualOur LivesRightsAchieveHundredConceptsMade ItOther CountriesFeatsIndividual RightsProdigiousPolitical Thinking
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“I cannot project the degree of hatred required to make those women run around in crusades against abortion. Hatred is what they certainly project, not love for the embryos, which is a piece of nonsense no one could experience, but hatred, a virulent hatred for an unnamed object...Their hatred is directed against human beings as such, against the mind, against reason, against ambition, against success, against love, against any value that brings happiness to human life. In compliance with the dishonesty that dominates today's intellectual field, they call themselves "pro-life".”

MindHumansReasonRunningTodayValuesHuman BeingsPiecesFieldsObjectsDegreesAmbitionProjectsIntellectualHatredHuman LifeAbortionNonsenseDishonestyPro LifeCrusadesComplianceEmbryosAgainst AbortionAgainst Love
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“Economic power is exercised by means of a positive, by offering men a reward, an incentive, a payment, a value; political power is exercised by means of a negative, by the threat of punishment, injury, imprisonment, destruction. The businessman's tool is values; the bureaucrat's tool is fear.”

MenMeanPoliticalValuesLibertyEconomicCapitalismNegativeEconomicsToolsDestructionThreatRewardsPunishmentInjuryOfferingBusinessmanIncentivesPaymentPolitical PowerBureaucratsImprisonmentEconomic Power
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“Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy--a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your own destruction, not the joy of escaping from your mind, but of using your mind's fullest power, not the joy of faking reality, but of achieving values that are real, not the joy of a drunkard, but of a producer.”

MindDoeRealStatesRealityHappinessJoyValuesAchieveDestructionGuiltInner PeaceProducersPenaltiesContradictoryClashEscapingDrunkards
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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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“The right to vote is a consequence, not a primary cause, of a free social system - and its value depends on the constitutional structure implementing and strictly delimiting the voters' power; unlimited majority rule is an instance of the principle of tyranny.”

ValuesSocialCausesLibertyPrinciplesEconomicDependsConsequenceEconomicsVoteMajorityStructureTyrannyInstancePrimariesVotersUnlimitedRight To VoteSocial SystemsImplementingMajority Rule
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“You who prattle that morality is social and that man would need no morality on a desert island - it is on a desert island that he would need it most. Let him try to claim, when there are no victims to pay for it, that a rock is a house, that sand is clothing, that food will drop into his mouth without cause or effort, that he will collect a harvest tomorrow by devouring his stock seed today - and reality will wipe him out, as he deserves; reality will show him that life is a value to be bought and that thinking is the only coin noble enough to buy it.”

ThinkingMenLifeNeedsTryingEnoughShowsRealityTodayLife IsValuesHouseSocialCausesEffortPayRocksTomorrowMoralityMouthsDeserveClaimsVictimSeedsNobleDesertIslandsSandClothingsHarvestCoinsNobilityWipeDevouring
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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
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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
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