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Quote by Ayn Rand

“There are no 'rights' of special groups, there are no 'rights of farmers, of workers, of businessmen, of employees, of employers, of the young, of the old, of the unborn.' There are only the Rights of Man -- rights possessed by every individual man and by all men as individuals.”

Quote by Ayn Rand

Book:The virtue of selfishness: a new concept of egoism
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The virtue of selfishness: a new concept of egoism

This book delves into the philosophical underpinnings of egoism, examining how self-interest can be a driving force for personal growth and societal advancement. It challenges traditional views on altruism and self-sacrifice, presenting a nuanced argument for the virtue of selfishness in various aspects of life. more

Author

Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand

American novelist and philosopher, known for her novels and philosophical ideas. Her works emphasize individualism, free markets, and rationalism, and have had a profound impact on politics and philosophy in the late 20th century. more

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“In the sphere of rights the irresistible trend is towards a situation where, if something can be taken for granted, all rights are otiose, whereas if a right must be demanded, it means that the battle is already lost; thus the very call for rights to water, air and space indicates that all these things are already on the way out. Similarly the evocation of a right to reply signals the absence of any dialogue, and so on. The rights of the individual lose their meaning as soon as the individual is no longer an alienated being, deprived of his own being, a stranger to himself, as has long been the case in societies of exploitation and scarcity. In his postmodern avatar, however, the individual is a self-referential and selfoperating unit. Under such circumstances the human-rights system becomes totally inadequate and illusory: the flexible, mobile individual of variable geometric form is no longer a subject with rights but has become, rather, a tactician and promoter of his own existence whose point of reference is not some agency of law but merely the efficiency of his own functioning or performance. Yet it is precisely now that the rights of man are acquiring a worldwide resonance. They constitute the only ideology that is currently available - which is as much as to say that human rights are the zero point of ideology, the sale outstanding balance of history. Human rights and ecology are the two teats of the consensus. The current world charter is that of the New Political Ecology. Ought we to view this apotheosis of human rights as the irresistible rise of stupidity, as a masterpiece which, though imperilled, is liable to light up the coming fin de siecle in the full glare of the consensus?”

StupidityAlienationRights Of Man
Book:The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena
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“Rechte können nur der Gruppe an der Macht innewohnen. Machtlos zu sein bedeutet, nur jene Rechte gewährt zu bekommen, die sich mit den Interessen und Zielen der Mächtigen vereinbaren lassen. Rechte entspringen demnach dem Eigeninteresse der Macht. Sie leiten sich von den Glaubensvorstellungen und der Ideologie der herrschenden Gruppe ab, der Ideologie, die ihrerseits Werte und Anschauungen bestimmt, während sie das Verhalten prägt.”

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“I regard as impious and detestable the maxim that in matters of government the majority of a people has the right to do everything, and nevertheless I place the origin of all powers in the wishes of the majority. Am I in contradiction with myself? There exists a general law which has been made, or at least adopted not only by the majority of this or that people but by the majority of all men. This law is justice. Justice thus forms the limit to the right of each people.”

PoliticsJusticeDemocracyRightsMajorityMinorityRights Of Man
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“Society is a hierarchy of rights and duties. Law exists to enforce the second, as much as to protect the first. Property is not a mere aggregate of economic privileges, but a responsible office. Its raison d’etre is not only income, but service. It is to secure its owner such means, and no more than such means, as may enable him to perform those duties, whether labour on the land, or labour in government, which are involved in the particular status which he holds in the system. He who seeks more robs his superiors, or his dependants, or both. He who exploits his property with a single eye to its economic possibilities at once perverts its very essence and destroys his own moral title, for he has ‘every man’s living and does no man’s duty.”

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Author:RH Tawney
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