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The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

Ayn Rand

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Ayn Rand
Age: 77 †
Born: 1905
Born: February 2
Died: 1982
Died: March 6
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Philosopher
Playwright
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
St. Petersburg
Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum
Men
Government
Aren
Live
Crime
Declares
Wells
Becomes
Crack
Without
Impossible
Cracks
Well
Wisdom
Breaking
Enough
Law
Libertarian
Many
Makes
Criminals
Things
Power
Laws

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The worst evil that you can do, psychologically, is to laugh at yourself. That means spitting in your own face.
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Reality confronts man with a great many musts, but all of them are conditional the formula of realistic necessity is You must, if and the if stands for man's choice
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And here, over the portals of my fort, I shall cut in the stone the word which is to be my beacon and my banner. The word which will not die should we all perish in battle. The word which can never die on this earth, for it is the heart of it and the meaning and the glory. The sacred word: EGO
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Married people dont look like they have bedrooms on their minds when they look at each other. In this world, either you're virtuous or you enjoy yourself. Not both...Not both.
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The causes of illusions are not pretty to discover. They're either vicious or tragic.
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I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
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Nobody has ever given a reason why men should be their brother's keepers.
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If one doesn't respect oneself one can have neither love nor respect for others.
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What whip lashed them to their knees in shame and submission? The worship of the word We.
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A good novel is an indivisible sum every scene, sequence and passage of a good novel has to involve, contribute to and advance all three of its major attributes: theme, plot, characterization.
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Racism is a doctrine of, by and for brutes.
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Do not keep silent when your own ideas and values are being attacked. If a dictatorship ever comes to this country, it will be by the fault of those who keep silent. We are still free enough to speak. Do we have time? No one can tell.
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Aristotle may be regarded as the cultural barometer of Western history. Whenever his influence dominated the scene, it paved the way for one of history's brilliant eras whenever it fell, so did mankind.
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You have been the one encounter in my life that can never be repeated
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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?
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Ever since Kant divorced reason from reality, his intellectual descendants have been diligently widening the breach.
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I want to know that I've accomplished something. I want to feel that it had some meaning. At the last summing up, I want to be sure it wasn't all-for nothing.
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Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth, the man who would make his fortune no matter where he started.
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My dear fellow, who will let you? That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?
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A quest for self-respect is proof of its lack
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