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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

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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
Novel
Passages
Three
Attributes
Every
Advance
Characterization
Good
Plot
Indivisible
Theme
Involve
Majors
Passage
Major
Sequence
Scene
Contribute

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The conservatives want to rule man's consciousness the liberals, his body.
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Money is just a tool. It will take you anywhere you want, but you have to be the driver
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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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When you have civilized men fighting savages, you support the civilized men, no matter who they are.
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The mark of an honest man... is that he means what he says and knows what he means.
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The greatest threat to mankind and civilization is the spread of the totalitarian philosophy. Its best ally is not the devotion of its followers but the confusion of its enemies. To fight it, we must understand it.
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Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.
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every man is free to rise as far as he's able or willing, but the degree to which he thinks determines the degree to which he'll rise.
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As long as men are free to speak, a small, rational minority will always prevail over an irrational majority.
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In order to deal with reality successfully - to pursue and achieve the values which his life requires - man needs self-esteem he needs to be confident of his efficacy and worth.
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Don't worry. They're all against me. But I have one advantage: they don't know what they want. I do.
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The causes of illusions are not pretty to discover. They're either vicious or tragic.
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The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man's self-defense, and, as such, may only resort to force only against those who start the use of force.
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Don't think of them now. Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them. You're here. It's our time and our life, not theirs. Don't struggle not to be happy. You are. - John Gault
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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.
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The fact that a man has no claim on others ... does not preclude or prohibit good will among men and does not make it immoral to offer or to accept voluntary, non-sacrificial assistance.
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I do not think that tragedy is our natural fate and I do not live in chronic dread of disaster. It is no happiness, but suffering that I consider unnatural. It is not success, but calamity that I regard as the abnormal exception in Human Life.
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Do it first and feel about it afterwards.' - Dagny Taggart
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Whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's potential.
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She knew that she could not have reached this white serenity except as the sum of all the colors, of all the violence she had known.
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