Quote

Why do they always teach us that it's easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It's the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want.

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
Kind
Teach
Fountainhead
Really
Passion
Restrain
Always
Evil
Hardest
World
Easy
Discipline
Need
Courage
Mean
Joy
Needs
Greatest
Thing
Takes

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To interpose the threat of physical destruction between a man and his perception of reality, is to negate and paralyze his means of survival to force him to act against his own judgment, is like forcing him to act against his own sight
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Do it first and feel about it afterwards.' - Dagny Taggart
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The conservatives want to rule man's consciousness the liberals, his body.
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Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
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In a capitalist society, all human relationships are voluntary.
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If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.
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Degrees do not matter... one does not bargain about inches of evil.
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As we gain knowledge, we do not become more certain, we become certain of more.
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A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.
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A good quotation must be a complete entity. It must be like a headline - sharp, clear, whole.
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If it were true that men could achieve their good by means of turning some men into sacrificial animals, and ... if I were asked to serve the interests of society apart from, above and against my own I would refuse... I would fight in the full confidence of the justice of my battle and of a living being's right to exist.
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I have no faith at all. I only hold convictions.
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He stepped to the window and pointed to the skyscrapers of the city. He said that we had to extinguish the lights of the world, and when we would see the lights of New York go out, we would know that our job was done.
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There can be no compromise on basic principles. There can be no compromise on moral issues. There can be no compromise on matters of knowledge, of truth, of rational conviction.
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There is no such dichotomy as 'human rights' versus 'property rights.' No human rights can exist without property rights.
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When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter if I am right, he will learn if I am wrong, I will one of us will win, but both will profit.
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There's nothing of any importance in life — except how well you do your work. Nothing. Only that. Whatever else you are, will come from that. It's the only measure of human value.
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Even if smog were a risk to human life, we must remember that life in nature, without technology, is wholesale death.
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Do not open your mouth to tell me that your mind has convinced you of your right to force my mind. Force and mind are opposites. Morality ends where a gun begins.
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