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Ayn Rand Quotes

Browse 24 quotes about Ayn Rand.

Ayn Rand Quotes

“To sum it all up, the [Ayn] Rand belief system looks like this: 1. Facts are facts: things can be absolutely right or absolutely wrong, as determined by reason. 2. According to my reasoning, I am absolutely right. 3. Charity is immoral. 4. Pay for your own fucking schools.”

PhilosophyCynicismObjectivismAyn Rand
Book:Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
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“In the history of philosophy, the term “rationalism” has two distinct meanings. In one sense, it signifies an unbreached commitment to reasoned thought in contrast to any irrationalist rejection of the mind. In this sense, Aristotle and Ayn Rand are preeminent rationalists, opposed to any form of unreason, including faith. In a narrower sense, however, rationalism contrasts with empiricism as regards the false dichotomy between commitment to so-called “pure” reason (i.e., reason detached from perceptual reality) and an exclusive reliance on sense experience (i.e., observation without inference therefrom). Rationalism, in this sense, is a commitment to reason construed as logical deduction from non-observational starting points, and a distrust of sense experience (e.g., the method of Descartes). Empiricism, according to this mistaken dichotomy, is a belief that sense experience provides factual knowledge, but any inference beyond observation is a mere manipulation of words or verbal symbols (e.g., the approach of Hume). Both Aristotle and Ayn Rand reject such a false dichotomy between reason and sense experience; neither are rationalists in this narrow sense. Theology is the purest expression of rationalism in the sense of proceeding by logical deduction from premises ungrounded in observable fact—deduction without reference to reality. The so-called “thinking” involved here is purely formal, observationally baseless, devoid of facts, cut off from reality. Thomas Aquinas, for example, was history’s foremost expert regarding the field of “angelology.” No one could match his “knowledge” of angels, and he devoted far more of his massive Summa Theologica to them than to physics.”

PhilosophyFactsRealityHistoryLogicExperiencePhysicsTheologyFactRationalismEmpiricismAristotleHumeAyn RandDavid HumeFalse DichotomyAngelologyLogical DeductionSumma Theologica
Author:Andrew Bernstein
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“the collectivist premise that men’s lives belong to society [...] reveals the enormity of the extent to which altruism erodes men’s capacity to grasp the concept of rights or the value of an individual life; it reveals a mind from which the reality of a human being has been wiped out”

HumanismSocialismIndividualismObjectivismEthics And Moral PhilosophyAyn Rand
Book:The virtue of selfishness: a new concept of egoism
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“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." [Kung Fu Monkey -- Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]”

ReadingEducationFantasyBooksLife ChangingReal WorldChildren S LiteratureLord Of The RingsAtlas ShruggedAyn RandJrr Tolkien
Author:John Rogers
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“The hippies saw themselves as enlightened. They were in fact about as endarkened as it was possible to get, the absolute enemies of Apollo. We need a new 1960s style revolution, but one which is much better thought out with regard to it consequences. Above all, it has to be explicitly allied to Apollonian forces, and explicitly resistant to anarchism, libertarianism and individualistic narcissism. Cataclysmically, 60s individualism mated with Ayn Rand’s anarcho-capitalist libertarianism, which detests government, authority and the State. We thus have the worst of Dionysian individualism and irrationalism, and no Apollonian collectivism and rationalism.”

SexIndividualismNarcissismRock And RollDrugs1960sHippiesAyn RandDionysianApollonian
Book:The Liberty Wars: The Trump Time Bomb
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“The whole idea of "leaners" and "lifters" is the central teaching of the right wing ideologue, Ayn Rand, who penned books like The Virtue of Selfishness. It’s a self-serving crock. Rand found out the hard way. After a lifetime proselytising on behalf of the "producers" and denouncing anyone needing government assistance as "parasites," when Rand became old and sick, she discovered that even a bestselling author could not afford health care in the neoliberal US. She availed herself of Medicare and ended her life on what she had despised – social security. ~ an edited extract from "The Life of I: the new culture of narcissism" ~Anne Manne~”

SelfishWealthyNarcissismSocial SecurityRich PeopleEntitlementMedicareRichestAyn RandNeoliberalRandNessRight Wing IdeologueLeaners And LiftersOld And Sick
Author:Anne Manne
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“Rand, Huxley, Orwell, and Bradbury foresaw much of today’s dystopian world: its spiritual and moral emptiness, its culture of consumerism, its flat-souled Last Manishness, its debasement of language, its doublethink, its illiteracy, and its bovine tolerance of authoritarian indignities. But they did not foresee the most serious and catastrophic of today’s problems: the eminent destruction of whites, and western culture. None of them thought to deal with race at all. Why is this? Probably for the simple reason that it never occurred to any of them that whites might take slave morality so far as to actually will their own destruction. As always, the truth is stranger than fiction.”

DystopianDystopiaGeorge Orwell1984Ray BradburyAyn RandWhite GenocideAldous HuxleyDoublethinkThe Last ManSlave Morality
Author:Jef Costello
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“The death of George Floyd has been used as a catalyst. It was the kind of “event” for which the aforesaid revolutionary formation (Black Lives Matter) was created. Now, Black Lives Matter has become a power in its own right. It is only the ignorance of the many, and the “fog of war,” that makes the casual observer dubious as to authorship of the present insurrection. For those who have not studied communist tactics, further shocks are in store. The existing political system failed to support the thin blue line, and that line is crumbling. The communists are winning.”

LibertyLibertarianismGeorge FloydAyn RandChecks And BalancesCounter Revolution
Author:J.R. Nyquist
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“At least two important conservative thinkers, Ayn Rand and Leo Strauss, were unbelievers or nonbelievers and in any case contemptuous of Christianity. I have my own differences with both of these savants, but is the Republican Party really prepared to disown such modern intellectuals as it can claim, in favor of a shallow, demagogic and above all sectarian religiosity? Perhaps one could phrase the same question in two further ways. At the last election, the GOP succeeded in increasing its vote among American Jews by an estimated five percentage points. Does it propose to welcome these new adherents or sympathizers by yelling in the tones of that great Democrat bigmouth William Jennings Bryan? By insisting that evolution is 'only a theory'? By demanding biblical literalism and by proclaiming that the Messiah has already shown himself? If so, it will deserve the punishment for hubris that is already coming its way. (The punishment, in other words, that Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson believed had struck America on Sept. 11, 2001. How can it be that such grotesque characters, calling down divine revenge on the workers in the World Trade Center, are allowed a respectful hearing, or a hearing at all, among patriotic Republicans?). [. . . And Why I'm Most Certainly Not! -- The Wall Street Journal, Commentary Column. May 5, 2005]”

ReligionPoliticsJesusChristianityUnited StatesAtheismEvolutionFundamentalismSectarianismJewsCreationismWorld Trade CenterChristian RightSeptember 11 AttacksAyn Rand200020012003Republican Party United StatesDemocratic Party United StatesBiblical LiteralismChristian FundamentalismPat RobertsonJerry FalwellWilliam Jennings BryanAmerican JewsLeo StraussUs Elections 2000
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“Nietzsche warned that the tarantulas want to fill the world “with the storms of their justice.” Their “Will to Equality” has become the basis for a false system of valuation. Today’s tarantulas are better known as “social justice warriors.” They are, in Nietzsche’s words: “against all that hath power.” But this outcry against power masks the tarantulas’ very own lust for power.”

LibertyLibertarianismAyn RandSocial Justice Warriors
Author:J.R. Nyquist
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“Kelley also marked 1965 as a turning point for another profound reason. That year, he discovered the work of author Ayn Rand. She was a figure who embodied the inner fortitude he lacked. Her writings struck him with the force of lightning. Rand's fiercely armored heroes ignited a fierce resolve in Kelley. It was a fire that mere introspection could never spark. This was no longer a time for lingering in emotion. It demanded action. He abandoned drinking. He embraced a rigorous exercise regimen. He revolutionized his diet. He dropped twenty pounds.”

ExerciseDrinkingTurning PointAyn Rand1965KelleyArmored Heroes
Book:Crossing the Forbidden Highway: The Untold Story of Orgone, Body Therapy, and Suppressed Emotion
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“I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire. For in the temple of his spirit, each man is alone. Let each man keep his temple untouched and undefiled. Then let him join hands with others if he wishes, but only beyond his holy threshold.”

FriendshipAyn Rand
Author:Ayn Rand, Anthem
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