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Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself not what he has or hasn’t done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity.

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
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Independence
Humans
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Fountainhead
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More quotes by Ayn Rand

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Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage-the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterologic al traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry.
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What greater wealth is there than to own your life and to spend it on growing? Every living thing must grow. It can't stand still. It must grow or perish.
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You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.
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Faith and force ... are corollaries: every period of history dominated by mysticism, was a period of statism, of dictatorship, of tyranny.
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Ideas, in a free society, are not a crime- and neither can they serve as the justification of a crime.
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A man's rights are not violated by a private individual's refusal to deal with him.
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If workers struggle for higher wages, this is hailed as social gains, if businessmen struggle for higher profits, this is damned as selfish greed.
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Nobody stays here by faking reality in any manner whatever.
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The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”-not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form-by giving presents to one's friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .
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My dear fellow, who will let you? That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?
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The mind is the attribute of man. When man is born, he comes into existence with only one weapon with him--The reasoning mind.
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Freedom comes from seeing the ignorance of your critics and discovering the emptiness of their virtue.
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As we gain knowledge, we do not become more certain, we become certain of more.
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A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.
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The action required to sustain human life is primarily intellectual everything man needs has to be discovered by his mind and produced by his effort.
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The creed of sacrifice is a morality for the immoral.
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Without property rights, no other rights are possible.
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[Altruism] is a moral system which holds that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the sole justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, value and virtue. This is the moral base of collectivism, of all dictatorships.
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Let me be the child in the story and declare that the Emperor is naked — or that America is culturally bankrupt.
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Do not set out to write with your eyes on the box office. It can't be done.
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