Quote

When the common good of a society is regarded as something apart from and superior to the individual good of its members, it means that the good of some men takes precedence over the good of others, with those others consigned to the status of sacrificial animals.

Ayn Rand

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Society
Status
Common
Superior
Individual
Superiors
Means
Apart
Others
Animals
Consigned
Mean
Members
Sacrificial
Something
Takes
Precedence
Good
Animal
Regarded

More quotes by Ayn Rand

Image
I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline.
Ayn Rand
Image
The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life.
Ayn Rand
Image
The desire not to be anything is the desire not to be.
Ayn Rand
Image
Thinking men cannot be ruled ambitious men do not stagnate.
Ayn Rand
Image
One loses everything when one loses one's sense of humor.
Ayn Rand
Image
The sky is like a black sieve pierced by silver drops that tremble, ready to burst through.
Ayn Rand
Image
Let no man posture as an advocate of peace if he proposes or supports any social system that initiates the use of force against individual men, in any form.
Ayn Rand
Image
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.
Ayn Rand
Image
When you are asked to love everybody indiscriminately, that is to love people without any standard, to love them regardless of whether they have any value or virtue, you are asked to love nobody.
Ayn Rand
Image
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
Image
The mind is the attribute of man. When man is born, he comes into existence with only one weapon with him--The reasoning mind.
Ayn Rand
Image
Ordinary human concern for human distress does not manifest itself ordinarily in the form of a gun aimed at the wallets and earnings of one's neighbors.
Ayn Rand
Image
Married people dont look like they have bedrooms on their minds when they look at each other. In this world, either you're virtuous or you enjoy yourself. Not both...Not both.
Ayn Rand
Image
Today we have discovered the word that could not be said. I
Ayn Rand
Image
The only thing that matters my goal my reward my beginning my end is the work itself. My work done my way. A private personal selfish egotistical motivation. That’s the only way I function. That’s all I am.
Ayn Rand
Image
If you want to save capitalism there is only one type of argument that you should adopt, the only one that has ever won in any moral issue: the argument from self-esteem. Check your premises, convince yourself of the rightness of your cause, then fight for capitalism with full, moral certainty.
Ayn Rand
Image
Self-sacrifice? But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed.
Ayn Rand
Image
Ah, there's nothing like tea in the afternoon. When the British Empire collapses, historians will find that it had made but two invaluable contributions to civilization - this tea ritual and the detective novel.
Ayn Rand
Image
Is it advisable to spread out all the conveniences of culture before people to whom a few steps up a stair to a library is a sufficient deterrent from reading?
Ayn Rand
Image
It's the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money.
Ayn Rand