Quote

Psychologically, the choice to think or not is the choice to focus or not. Existentially, the choice to focus or not is the choice to be conscious or not. Metaphysically, the choice to be conscious or not is the choice of life or death.

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
Conscious
Choice
Focus
Choices
Death
Think
Metaphysically
Thinking
Existentially
Life
Psychologically

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Government holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force.
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By what he chooses to present and by how he presents it, any author expresses his fundamental, metaphysical values.
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Romantic art is always stylized: the better the art, the cleaner and more attractive and intelligent the stylization.
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Don't help me or serve me, but let me see it once, because I need it. Don't work for my happiness, my brothers — show me yours — show me that it is possible — show me your achievement — and the knowledge will give me courage for mine.
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To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That's what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul - would you understand why that's much harder?
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The man without a purpose is a man who drifts at the mercy of random feelings or unidentified urges and is capable of any evil, because he is totally out of control of his own life. In order to be in control of your life, you have to have a purpose-a productive purpose.
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But there are people who'll try to hurt you through the good they see in you--knowing that it's the good, needing it and punishing you for it. Don't let it break you when you discover that.
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Poverty is not a mortgage on the labor of others-misfortu ne is not a mortgage on achievement-fai lure is not a mortgage on success-sufferi ng is not a claim check, and its relief is not the goal of existence-man is not a sacrificial animal on anyone’s altar nor for anyone’s cause-life is not one huge hospital.
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The conservatives want to rule man's consciousness the liberals, his body.
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We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.
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She's a writer. The kind of writer who wouldn't be published outside. She believes that when one deals with words, one deals with the mind.
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The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life.
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If you know that this life is all that you have, wouldn't you make the most of it?
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Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life.
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Style is not an end in itself, it is only a means to an end - the means of telling a story.
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Any alleged 'right' of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.
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Any material element or resource which, in order to become of use or value to men, requires the application of human knowledge and effort, should be private property-by the right of those who apply the knowledge and effort.
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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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