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Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.

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
Others
Benefit
Government
Benefits
Giving
Humor
Every
Liberty
Unearned
Men
Economy
Interference
Economic
Expense
Politics
Expenses
Force
Consists

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A moment or an eternity—did it matter? Life, undefeated, existed and could exist.
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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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You know, I think that only if one feels immensely important can one feel truly light.
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Pleasure is nought but virtue's gayer name-- I wrong her still, I rate her worth too low: Virtue the root, and pleasure is the flow'r.
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If the rest of them can survive only by destroying us, then why should we wish them to survive? . . . Nothing can make it moral to destroy the best. One can't be punished for being good. One can't be penalized for ability.
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Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness, just as honesty is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake existence.
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Guilt is a rope that wears thin.
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No speech is ever considered, but only the speaker. It's so much easier to pass judgement on a man than on an idea.
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In order to be in control of your life, you have to have a purpose-a productive purpose.
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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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...if men are to be ruled, then the enemy is reason.
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The only proper, moral purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence - to protect his right to his own life, to his own liberty, to his own property and to the pursuit of his own happiness. Without property rights, no other rights are possible.
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Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.
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Show me your achievement, and the knowledge will give me courage for mine.
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One can't love man without hating most of the creatures who pretend to bear his name.
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