Quote

When I listen to a symphony I love, I don't get from it what the composer got. His 'Yes' was different from mine. He could have no concern for mine and no exact conception of it. That answer is too personal to each man. But in giving himself what he wanted, he gave me a great experience.

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
Experience
Mines
Wanted
Mine
Giving
Concern
Great
Gave
Different
Answer
Symphony
Men
Listen
Exact
Love
Personal
Composer
Answers
Conception

More quotes by Ayn Rand

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You have been called selfish for the courage of acting on your own judgement and bearing sole responsibility for your own life. You have been called arrogant for your independent mind. You have been called cruel for your unyielding integrity. You have been calle anti social for the vision that made you venture upon undiscovered roads.
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You love people, not for what you do for them or what they do for you. You love them for their values their virtues.
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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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The great creators-the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors-stood alone against the men of their time.
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Your soul has a single basic function-the act of valuing.
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The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time.
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It's such a waste to be subtle and vicious with people who don't even know that you're being subtle and vicious
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I have no faith at all. I only hold convictions.
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I cannot stand Tolstoy, and reading him was the most boring literary duty I ever had to perform, his philosophy and his sense of life are not merely mistaken, but evil, and yet, from a purely literary viewpoint, on his own terms, I have to evaluate him as a good writer.
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Whatever road I take, the guiding star is within me the guiding star and the loadstone which point the way. They point in but one direction. They point to me.
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Science was born as a result and consequence of philosophy it cannot survive without a philosophical base. If philosophy perishes, science will be next to go.
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Collectivism answers: The power of society is unlimited. Society may make any laws it wishes, and force them upon anyone in any manner it wishes.
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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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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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I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. Particularly when one can't see the details. Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need?
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Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.
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Everyone has the right to make his own decisions, but none has the right to force his decision on others.
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I made my fortune by being able to spot a certain kind of man.
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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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A good quotation must be a complete entity. It must be like a headline - sharp, clear, whole.
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