Quote

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.

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
York
City
Skyscrapers
Cities
Extinguish
Jobs
Skyscraper
Light
Stepped
Done
Pointed
Would
Lights
World
Window

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As we gain knowledge, we do not become more certain, we become certain of more.
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Dominique as Gail looks at her ... there is a stage of worship which makes the worshiper himself an object of reverence.
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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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One can study what exists and how consciousness functions but one cannot analyze (or “prove”) existence as such, or consciousness as such. These are irreducible primaries. (An attempt to “prove” them is self-contradict ory: it is an attempt to “prove” existence by means of nonexistence, and consciousness by means of unconsciousness .)
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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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Self-sacrifice? But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed.
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That which exists possesses identity he could keep it out of existence by refusing to identify it.
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What objectivity and the study of philosophy requires is not an 'open mind,' but an active mind - a mind able and eagerly willing to examine ideas, but to examine them criticially.
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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.
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Neither life nor happiness can be achieved by the pursuit of irrational whims.
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Man has a single basic choice: to think or not, and that is the gauge of his virtue. Moral perfection is an unbreached rationality-not the degree of your intelligence, but the full and relentless use of your mind, not the extent of your knowledge, but the acceptance of reason as an absolute.
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A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving.
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No one's happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to destroy.
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Serenity comes from the ability to say “Yes” to existence. Courage comes from the ability to say “No” to the wrong choices made by others.
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There can be no justification for choosing any part of that which one knows to be evil.
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Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it.
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My greatest personal mistake is ever to allow a word or moment that “doesn’t count,” i.e., that I do not refer to my own basic principles. Every word, every action, every moment counts. (This is the pattern on which everybody makes mistakes [or] becomes irrational — not relating their one action or one conviction to another.
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Her face lay still on the air under his face.
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Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.
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Man cannot demand that others give up their lives to make him happy.
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