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Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand Quotes

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Famous Ayn Rand Quotes

“Did it ever occur to you, that there is no conflict of interests among men, neither in business nor in trade nor in their most personal desires if they omit the irrational from their view of the possible and destruction from their view of the practical? There is no conflict, and no call for sacrifice, and no man is a threat to the aims of another if men understand that reality is an absolute not to be faked, that lies do not work, that the unearned cannot be had, that the undeserved cannot be given, that the destruction of a value which is, will not bring value to that which isn't.”

IfsMenRealityLyingDesireValuesGivenInterestViewsBusinessSacrificeConflictDestructionAbsolutesAimTradeThreatPracticalsDeceitIrrationalConflict Of InterestPersonal Desire
Author:Ayn Rand
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“Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live-that productive work is the process by which man's consciousness controls his existence, a constant process of acquiring knowledge and shaping matter to fit one's purpose, of translating an idea into physical form, of remaking the earth in the image of one's values-that all work is creative work if done by a thinking mind.”

IfsThinkingMenInspirationalMindIdeasMatterDoneFactsEarthFormSuccessPurposeValuesProcessExistenceConsciousnessCreativeAcceptanceFitMoralityConstantRecognitionProductiveInsightfulYou ChooseTranslateCreative WorkThinking MindAcquiring KnowledgeProductive Work
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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“Man has been called a rational being, but rationality is a matter of choice... Man has to be a man-by choice; he has to hold his life as a value-by choice; he has to learn to sustain it-by choice; he has to discover the values it requires and practice his virtues by choice. A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.”

MenHas BeensMatterValuesChoicesPracticeVirtueMoralityAcceptedRationalCodeRationalityBe A Man
Book:Philosophy: Who Needs It
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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
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy . . . Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values, and finds his joy in nothing but rational actions.”

MenStatesActionJoyDesireValuesGoalHe ManRationalContradictoryJoy Happiness
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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“The lust that drives others to enslave an empire, had become, in her limits, a passion for power over him. She had set out to break him, as if, unable to equal his value, she could surpass it by destroying it, as if the measure of his greatness would thus become the measure of hers, as if the vandal who smashed a statue were greater than the artist who had made it, as if the murderer who killed a child were greater than the mother who had given it birth.”

IfsChildrenMadeMotherArtistValuesPassionGivenBreakGreaterGreatnessBirthLimitsEqualLustMade ItEmpiresDestroyingMurdererStatuesVandals
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“Since a rational man's ambition is unlimited, since his pursuit and achievement of values is a life-long process — and the higher the values, the harder the struggle — he needs a moment, an hour or some period of time in which he can experience the sense of his completed task, the sense of living in a universe where his values have been successfully achieved.”

MenLifeNeedsHas BeensMomentsMovingValuesUniverseProcessHoursStruggleHigherPeriodsAchievementAmbitionGainsTasksHarderPursuitRationalFuelUnlimitedLifelongLife Struggle
Author:Ayn Rand
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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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“You'll come back, because yours is an error of knowledge, not a moral failure, not an act of surrender to evil, but only the last act of being victim to your own virtue. We'll wait for you and when you come back, you will have discovered that there need never be any conflict among your desires, nor so tragic a clash of values as the one you've borne so well.”

NeedsWellsLastsDesireValuesEvilWaitingMoralKnowledgeVirtueConflictVictimErrorsSurrenderTragicClashMoral Failure
Author:Ayn Rand
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“No value is higher than self-esteem, but you've invested it in counterfeit securities-and now your morality has caught you in a trap where you are forced to protect your self-esteem by fighting for the creed of self-destruction. The grim joke is on you: that need of self-esteem, which you're unable to explain or to define, belongs to my morality, not yours; it's the objective token of my code, it is my proof within your own soul.”

NeedsSoulSelfValuesFightingSecuritySelf EsteemHigherMoralityProtectJokesDestructionCaughtProofObjectivesEsteemCodeWhere You AreCreedsTrapsGrimSelf DestructionTokensCounterfeit
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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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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“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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“In proportion to the mental energy he spent, the man who creates a new invention receives but a small percentage of his value in terms of material payment, no matter what fortune he makes, no matter what millions he earns. But the man who works as a janitor in the factory producing that invention, receives an enormous payment in proportion to the mental effort that his job requires of him. And the same is true of all men between, on all levels of ambition and ability.”

MenMatterJobsValuesEnergyTermAbilityLevelsEffortMillionsHe ManMaterialsAmbitionNo Matter WhatFortuneEnormousInventionProportionFactoriesPercentagesPaymentEgalitarianismJanitorNew Inventions
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“The man at the top of the intellectual pyramid contributes the most to all those below him, but gets nothing except his material payment, receiving no intellectual bonus from others to add to the value of his time. The man at the bottom who, left to himself, would starve in his hopeless ineptitude, contributes nothing to those above him, but receives the bonus of all of their brains. Such is the nature of the 'competition' between the strong and the weak of the intellect. Such is the pattern of 'exploitation' for which you have damned the strong.”

MenValuesLeftStrongBrainHe ManMaterialsIntellectualWeakAddCompetitionBottomPatternsIntellectHopelessReceivingExploitationPaymentPyramidsBonusEgalitarianismIneptitude
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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“Since nature does not endow all men with equal beauty or equal intelligence, and the faculty of volition leads men to make different choices, the egalitarians propose to abolish the "unfairness" of nature and of volition, and to establish universal equality in fact - in defiance of facts. It is not equality before the law that they seek, but inequality: the establishment of an inverted social pyramid, with a new aristocracy on top - the aristocracy of non-value.”

MenDoeDifferentFactsLawValuesChoicesSocialEqualUniversalEqualityInequalityFacultyEstablishmentProposeDefiancePyramidsAristocracyAbolishUnfairnessEgalitarianismVolitionInvertedDifferent Choices
Book:The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution
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“Look around you and look at history. You will see the achievements of man’s mind. You will see man’s unlimited potentiality for greatness, and the faculty that makes it possible. You will see that man is not a helpless monster by nature, but he becomes one when he discards that faculty: his mind. And if you ask me, what is greatness? I will answer, it is the capacity to live by the three fundamental values of John Galt: reason, purpose, self-esteem.”

IfsMenMindLooksSelfReasonPurposeValuesThreeAsksAnswersSelf EsteemGreatnessAchievementCapacityFundamentalsMonstersEsteemAsk MeLive ByFacultyHelplessUnlimited
Author:Ayn Rand
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