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Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand Quotes

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Famous Ayn Rand Quotes

“I like to receive money for my work. But I can pass that up this time. I like to have people know my work is done by me. But I can pass that up. I like to have tenants made happy by my work. But that doesn't matter too much. The only thing that matters, my goal, my reward, my beginning, my end is the work itself. My work done my way. Peter, there's nothing in the world that you can offer me, except this. Offer me this and you can have anything I've got to give. My work done my way. A private, personal, selfish, egotistical motivation. That's the only way I function. That's all I am.”

PeopleKnowsWorldWayGivingMadeI CanEndsMatterDoneMotivationGoalToo MuchOffersFunctionRewardsSelfishMy WayPeterEgotisticalThings That MatterWork DoneTenantsOnly Thing That Matters
Book:The Fountainhead
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“Well, I always know what I want. And when you know what you want--you go toward it. Sometimes you go very fast, and sometimes only an inch a year. Perhaps you feel happier when you go fast. I don't know. I've forgotten the difference long ago, because it really doesn't matter, so long as you move.”

KnowsWantFeelsYearsWellsLongSometimesMatterMovingDifferencesMovementForgottenWhat You WantFulfillmentInchesLong AgoFulfilledFulfillingFulfilling LifeFulfilled LifePersonal FulfillmentFulfillment In Life
Book:We the Living
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“Not selfishness, but precisely the absence of a self. Look at them. The man who cheats and lies, but preserves a respectable front. He knows himself to be dishonest, but others think he’s honest and he derives his self-respect from that, second-hand. The man who takes credit for an achievement which is not his own. He knows himself to be mediocre, but he’s great in the eyes of others.”

ThinkingKnowsMenLooksSelfHandsEyeLyingHonestFrontsAchievementCreditAbsenceSelfishnessPreservesSelf RespectDeceitCheatMediocreRespectableSecond Hand
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“To say ‘I love you’ one must first know how to say the ‘I.’ The meaning of the ‘I’ is an independent, self-sufficient entity that does not exist for the sake of any other person. A person who exists only for the sake of his loved one is not an independent entity, but a spiritual parasite. The love of a parasite is worth nothing.”

KnowsFirstsPersonsDoeSelfSpiritualKnow HowLove YouIndependentSakeSufficientLoved OnesEntityI Love YouParasitesSay I Love YouSelf SufficientWise Women
Author:Ayn Rand
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“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.”

KnowsMenNeedsMaySelfDoneLawOrderDealsLibertySacrificeSocietyEconomicHonestyProduceBecomingProtectCorruptionFavorsGoodsConspiracyPermissionDoomedConsentTradingCompulsionGet RichYou AgainSelf SacrificeProtect You
Book:Ayn Rand Novel Collection
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“I think it's funny. There was a time when men were afraid that somebody would reveal some secret of theirs that was unknown to their fellows. Nowadays, they're afraid that somebody will name what everybody knows. Have you practical people ever thought that that's all it would take to blast your whole, big, complex structure, with all your laws and guns - just somebody naming the exact nature of what you're doing?”

PeopleThinkingKnowsMenWholeBigsFunnyLawLyingNamesSecretGunFellowsStructureComplexesPracticalsBlast
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“Or did you say it's the love of money that's the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know its nature. To love money is to known and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It's the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money - and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it.”

KnowsMenLovePersonsSoulReasonFactsAbleHateEvilWorkMoneyEffortKnownPowerKnowingCreationWillingLoversDeserveRootsHatredAnd LoveTradeSellsSellingWithin YouDeservingLove Of MoneyProclaimingNickelsMoney Is The Root Of All Evil
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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“I am speaking to those among you who have retained some sovereign shred of their soul, unsold and unstamped: '- to the order of others'. If, in the chaos of the motives that have made you listen to the radio tonight, there was an honest, rational desire to learn what is wrong with the world, you are the man whom I wished to address. By the rules and terms of my code, one owes a rational statement to those whom it does concern and who are making an effort to know. Those who are making an effort to fail to understand me, are not a concern of mine.”

IfsKnowsMenWorldDoeMadeSoulDesireOrderTermEffortFailingHonestMinesHe ManListeningConcernChaosRadioStatementsRationalCodeMotiveAddressesTonightSovereignUnderstand MeDesire To Learn
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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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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“If there is any one proof of a man's incompetence, it is the stagnant mentality of a worker who, doing some small routine job in a vast undertaking, does not care to look beyond the lever of a machine, does not choose to know how the machine got there or what makes his job possible, and proclaims that the management of the undertaking is parasitical and unnecessary.”

IfsKnowsMenLooksDoeCareJobsKnow HowMachinesManagementWorkersProofRoutineMentalityUnnecessaryIncompetenceUndertakingsStagnantLevers
Book:The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution
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“You're not sorry. You could've been here if you made the effort. But when did you ever make an effort for anybody but yourself? You're not interested in any of us or in anything we do. You think if you pay the bills, that's enough, don't you? Money! That's all you know. And all you give us is money. Have you even given us any time?”

IfsThinkingKnowsGivingMadeEnoughTimeGivenMoneyEffortPayBillsSorryNot InterestedNot Sorry
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“What I want you to understand, is the full evil of those who claim to have become convinced that this earth, by its nature, is a realm of malevolence where the good has no chance to win. Let them check their premises. Let them check their standards of value. Let them check - before they grant themselves the unspeakable license of evil-as-necessity - whether they know what is the good and what are the conditions it requires.”

KnowsWantEarthValuesEvilWinningChanceConditionsStandardsClaimsConvincedChecksRealmsGrantsI Want YouLicensePremisesUnspeakableMalevolence
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“The men of the press, who despised their own profession, did not know why they were enjoying it today. One of them, a young man with years of notorious success behind him and a cynical look of twice his age, said suddenly, 'I know what I'd like to be: I wish I could be a man who covers news!'”

KnowsMenYearsLooksSaidAgeTodaySuccessYoungWishEnjoyBehindsHe ManNewsPressesProfessionYoung ManCynicalBe A ManDespisedNotorious
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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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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“The good, say the mystics of spirit, is God, a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive — a definition that invalidates man's consciousness and nullifies his concepts of existence. The good, say the mystics of muscle, is Society — a thing which they define as an organism that possesses no physical form, a super-being embodied in no one in particular and everyone in general except yourself.... The purpose of man's life, say both, is to become an abject zombie who serves a purpose he does not know, for reasons he is not to question.”

KnowsMenDoeReasonFormSpiritPurposeExistenceConsciousnessParticularConceptsDefinitionsMusclesConformityOrganismsZombie
Author:Ayn Rand
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