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Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand Quotes

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Famous Ayn Rand Quotes

“Creation comes before distribution - or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement.”

MenNeedsMadeLibertyCreationTaughtHe ManAchievementPraiseCharityCreatorAdmireDistributionFountainheadBeneficiariesActs Of Charity
Book:Ayn Rand Reader
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“It does not matter that only a few in each generation will grasp and achieve the full reality of man's proper stature-and the rest will betray it. It is those few that move the world and give life its meaning-and it is those few that I have always sought to address. The rest are no concern of mine; it is not me or "The Fountainhead" that they will betray: it is their own souls.”

MenWorldLifeGivingDoeSoulMatterRealityMovingCourageGenerationsAchieveMinesConcernIndividualityBetrayalAddressesBetrayStatureFountainhead
Book:The Fountainhead
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“Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.”

MenHas BeensTogetherLibertyVirtueSocietyEconomicTaughtHe ManEconomicsAgreeCurrentsCreatorInsaneInsanitySwimDisagreeStand AloneFountainhead
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“Peter Keating: "Do you always have to have a purpose? Do you always have to be so damn serious? Can't you ever do things without reason, just like everybody else? You're so serious, so old. Everything's important with you. Everything's great, significant in some way, every minute, even when you keep still. Can't you ever be comfortable-and unimportant?" | Howard Roark: "No."”

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Author:Ayn Rand
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“The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed or subordinated to any consideration whatsoever. It demands total independence in function and in motive.”

NeedsMindFormDemandFunctionIndependenceCreatorMotiveReasoningConsiderationCompulsionFountainheadBasic Needs
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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“The great creators - the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors - stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible... But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.”

MenFirstsArtistPoliticsVisionImpossibleHe ManGeniusScientistPaidCreatorFoolishInventionThinkerAirplaneMotorInventorNew ThoughtFountainheadNew Inventions
Book:Ayn Rand Reader
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