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America's abundance was not created by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes.
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
Men
Liberty
Economics
Industrialization
Public
Interests
Fortunes
Interest
Fortune
Sacrifices
Common
Private
Libertarianism
Free
Sacrifice
Pursued
Making
Created
Abundance
America
Genius
Libertarian
Good
Personal
Productive
More quotes by Ayn Rand
The right to vote is a consequence, not a primary cause, of a free social system - and its value depends on the constitutional structure implementing and strictly delimiting the voters' power unlimited majority rule is an instance of the principle of tyranny.
Ayn Rand
Humor is not an unconditional virtue its moral character depends on its object. To laugh at the contemptible, is a virtue to laugh at the good, is a hideous vice. Too often, humor is used as the camouflage of moral cowardice.
Ayn Rand
He despised causeless affection, just as he despised unearned wealth. They professed to love him for some unknown reason and they ignored all the things for which he could wish to be loved.
Ayn Rand
The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way.
Ayn Rand
Your soul has a single basic function-the act of valuing.
Ayn Rand
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.
Ayn Rand
The alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind
Ayn Rand
Do not let your fire go out ... Do not let the Hero in your soul perish ... Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
Ayn Rand
To know one's own desires, their meaning and their costs requires the highest human virtue: rationality.
Ayn Rand
Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.
Ayn Rand
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
The essential characteristic of socialism is the denial of individual property rights.
Ayn Rand
Degrees do not matter... one does not bargain about inches of evil.
Ayn Rand
In a free society, one does not have to deal with those who are irrational. One is free to avoid them.
Ayn Rand
It was the greatest sensation of existence: not to trust but to know.
Ayn Rand
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.
Ayn Rand
If men want to oppose war, it is statism that they must oppose.
Ayn Rand
A 'whim' is a desire experienced by a person who does not know and does not care to discover its cause.
Ayn Rand
We the Living is not a novel 'about Soviet Russia.' It is a novel about Man against the State. Its basic theme is the sanctity of human life - using the word 'sanctity' not in a mystical sense, but in the sense of 'supreme value.'
Ayn Rand
She knew that even pain can be confessed, but to confess happiness is to stand naked, delivered to the witness.
Ayn Rand