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You'd let the whole world perish rather than soil that immaculate self of yours with a single spot of which you'd have to be ashamed.

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
Ashamed
Soil
Single
Rather
Self
Immaculate
Whole
Perish
World
Spot
Spots

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Creation comes before distribution -- or there will be nothing to distribute.
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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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In order to be in control of your life, you have to have a purpose-a productive purpose.
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Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy: I will it!
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This was the great clarity of being beyond emotion, after the reward of having felt everything one could feel.
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Men prosper or fail, survive or perish in proportion to the degree of their rationality.
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It is not as late as you think. It is merely early - in the age of the rebirth of individualism.
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In this world, either you're virtuous or you enjoy yourself. Not both, lady, not both.
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I am opposed to all forms of control. I am for an absolute, laissez-faire, free, unregulated economy.
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When the common good of a society is regarded as something apart from and superior to the individual good of its members, it means that the good of some men takes precedence over the good of others, with those others consigned to the status of sacrificial animals.
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Capitalism has been called a system of greed—yet it is the system that raised the standard of living of its poorest citizens to heights no collectivist system has ever begun to equal, and no tribal gang can conceive of.
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If I were to speak your kind of language, I would say that man's only moral commandment is: Thou shalt think. But a 'moral commandment' is a contradiction in terms. The moral is the chosen, not the forced the understood, not the obeyed. The moral is the rational, and reason accepts no commandments.
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What do I think of President Reagan? The best answer to give would be: I don't think of him. And the more I see, the less I think.
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As long as men are free to speak, a small, rational minority will always prevail over an irrational majority.
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Man's unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself.
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The right to life means that a man has the right to support his life by his own work (on any economic level, as high as his ability will carry him) it does not mean that others must provide him with the necessities of life.
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To the extent to which a man is rational, life is the premise directing his actions. To the extent to which he is irrational, the premise directing his actions is death.
Ayn Rand
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Don't rely on our knowledge of what's best for your future. We do know, but it can't be best until you know it.
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Morally, the promise of an impossible “right” to economic security is an infamous attempt to abrogate the concept of rights. It can and does mean only one thing: a promise to enslave the men who produce, for the benefit of those who don’t.
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One must differentiate between one's thoughts and one's emotions with full clarity and precision...No discussion, cooperation, agreement, or understanding is possible among men who substitute emotion for proof.
Ayn Rand