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Quote by Ayn Rand

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Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged is a novel that delves into themes of individualism, objectivism, and economic theory. It follows a diverse cast of characters as they navigate a dystopian future where the productive members of society withdraw their efforts in protest against the oppressive government. 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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“Through all the centuries of the worship of the mindless, whatever stagnation humanity chose to endure, whatever brutality to practice-it was only by the grace of the men who perceived that wheat must have water in order to grow, that stones laid in a curve will form an arch, that two and two make four, that love is not served by torture and life is not fed by destruction-only by the grace of those men did the rest of them learn to experience moments when they caught the spark of being human.”

MenHumansTwoMomentsFormLife IsHumanityOrderGrowsWaterLove IsPracticeGraceFourCenturyHe ManWorshipStonesDestructionEndureCaughtTortureFedsSparksBeing HumanCurvesBrutalityWheatMindlessStagnationArches
Author:Ayn Rand
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“An animal is equipped for sustaining its life; its senses provide it with an automatic code of action, an automatic knowledge of what is good for it or evil... Man has no automatic code of survival. His particular distinction from all other living species is the necessity to act in the face of alternatives by means of volitional choice.”

MenMeanActionFacesChoicesEvilAnimalParticularSurvivalSpeciesSensesAlternativesCodeDistinctionSustainingEvil Man
Book:Philosophy: Who Needs It
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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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