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A Majority Vote Is Not An Epistemological Validation Of An Idea. Voting Is Merely A Proper Political Device--within A Strictly, Constitutionall Y Delimited Sphere Of Action--for Choosing The Practical Means Of Implementing A Society’s Basic Principles. But Those Principles Are Not Determined By Vote.

-Ayn Rand

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A Majority Vote Is

Ayn Rand

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A Majority Vote Is Not An Epistemological Validation Of An Idea. Voting Is Merely A Proper Political Device--within A Strictly, Constitutionall Y Delimited Sphere Of Action--for Choosing The Practical Means Of Implementing A Society’s Basic Principles. But Those Principles Are Not Determined By Vote.

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No Man May Initiate The Use Of Physical Force Against Others. No Man-or Group Or Society Or Government-has The Right To Assume The Role Of A Criminal And Initiate The Use Of Physical Compulsion Against Any Man. Men Have The Right To Use Physical Force Only In Retaliation And Only Against Those Who Initiate Its Use. The Ethical Principle Involved Is Simple And Clear-cut: It Is The Difference Between Murder And Self-defense.

Run For Your Life From Any Man Who Tells You That Money Is Evil. That Sentence Is The Leper's Bell Of An Approaching Looter.

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.

I Am Neither Foe Nor Friend To My Brothers, But Such As Each Of Them Shall Deserve Of Me. And To Earn My Love, My Brothers Must Do More Than To Have Been Born. I Do Not Grant My Love Without Reason, Nor To Any Chance Passer-by Who May Wish To Claim It. I Honor Men With My Love. But Honor Is A Thing To Be Earned.

It Was The Only Thing I Ever Really Wanted. And That’s The Sin That Can’t Be Forgiven--that I Hadn’t Done What I Wanted. It Feels So Dirty And Pointless And Monstrous, As One Feels About Insanity, Because There’s No Sense To It, No Dignity, Nothing But Pain--and Wasted Pain...why Do They Always Teach Us That It’s Easy And Evil To Do What We Want And That We Need Discipline To Restrain Ourselves? It’s The Hardest Thing In The World--to Do What We Want. And It Takes The Greatest Kind Of Courage.

The Purpose Of Man's Life...is To Become An Abject Zombie Who Serves A Purpose He Does Not Know, For Reasons He Is Not To Question.

Why No. I’m Too Conceited. If You Want To Call It That. I Don’t Make Comparisons. I Never Think Of Myself In Relation To Anyone Else. I Just Refuse To Measure Myself As Part Of Anything. I’m An Utter Egotist.

I Shall Choose Friends Among Men, But Neither Slaves Nor Masters. And I Shall Choose Only Such As Please Me, And Them I Shall Love And Respect, But Neither Command Nor Obey. And We Shall Join Our Hands When We Wish, Or Walk Alone When We So Desire.

When A Man Attempts To Deal With Me By Force, I Answer Him, By Force.

Of All The Statist Violations Of Individual Rights In A Mixed Economy, The Military Draft Is The Worst. It Is An Abrogation Of Rights. It Negates Man’s Fundamental Right-the Right To Life-and Establishes The Fundamental Principle Of Statism: That A Man’s Life Belongs To The State, And The State May Claim It By Compelling Him To Sacrifice It In Battle. Once That Principle Is Accepted, The Rest Is Only A Matter Of Time.

It Was The Greatest Sensation Of Existence: Not To Trust But To Know.

The Fortune My Spirit Is Not To Be Blown Into Coins Of Brass And Flung To The Winds As Alms For The Poor Of The Spirit. I Guard My Treasures: My Thought, My Will, My Freedom. And The Greatest Of These Is Freedom.

To Rest One's Case On Faith Means To Concede That Reason Is On The Side Of One's Enemies- That One Has No Rational Arguments To Offer.

Face A Challenge And Find Joy In The Capacity To Meet It.

If You Surrender Everything To The Government And Give It Total Power To Plan The Whole Economy, This Will Not Guarantee Your Economic Security, But It Will Guarantee The Descent Of The Entire Nation To A Level Of Miserable Poverty--as The Practical Results Of Every Totalitarian Economy, Communist Or Fascist, Have Demonstrated.

Any Alleged 'right' Of One Man, Which Necessitates The Violation Of The Rights Of Another, Is Not And Cannot Be A Right.

The Man Who Attempts To Live For Others Is A Dependent. He Is A Parasite In Motive And Makes Parasites Of Those He Serves.

Live For Others

The Source Of The Government's Authority Is “the Consent Of The Governed.” This Means That The Government Is Not The Ruler, But The Servant Or Agent Of The Citizens; It Means That The Government As Such Has No Rights Except The Rights Delegated To It By The Citizens For A Specific Purpose.

There Is A Fundamental Conviction Which Some People Never Acquire, Some Hold Only In Their Youth, And A Few Hold To The End Of Their Days-the Conviction That Ideas Matter . . . . That Ideas Matter Means That Knowledge Matters, That Truth Matters, That One's Mind Matters . . .

And Questions Give Us No Rest. We Know Not Why Our Curse Makes Us Seek We Know Not What, Ever And Ever. But We Cannot Resist It. It Whispers To Us That There Are Great Things On This Earth Of Ours, And That We Can Know Them If We Try, And That We Must Know Them. We Ask, Why Must We Know, But It Has No Answer To Give Us. We Must Know That We May Know.

If A Society Is To Be Free, Its Government Has To Be Controlled.

We Cannot Fight Against Collectivism, Unless We Fight Against Its Moral Base: Altruism. We Cannot Fight Against Altruism, Unless We Fight Against Its Epistemological Base: Irrationalism. We Cannot Fight Against Anything, Unless We Fight For Something--and What We Must Fight For Is The Supremacy Of Reason And A View Of Man As A Rational Being.

The Man Who Refuses To Judge, Who Neither Agrees Nor Disagrees, Who Declares That There Are No Absolutes And Believes That He Escapes Responsibility, Is The Man Responsible For All The Blood That Is Now Spilled In The World

Power-lust Is A Weed That Grows Only In The Vacant Lots Of An Abandoned Mind.

It Is True That The Welfare-statists Are Not Socialists, That They Never Advocated Or Intended The Socialization Of Private Property, That They Want To 'preserve' Private Property-with Government Control Of Its Use And Disposal. But That Is The Fundamental Characteristic Of Fascism.

The Meaning Ascribed In Popular Usage To The Word 'selfishness' Is Not Merely Wrong: It Represents A Devastating Intellectual 'package-deal,' Which Is Responsible, More Than Any Other Single Factor, For The Arrested Moral Development Of Mankind.

Moral Development

The Only Purpose Of Education Is To Teach A Student How To Live His Life-by Developing His Mind And Equipping Him To Deal With Reality. The Training He Needs Is Theoretical, I.e., Conceptual. He Has To Be Taught To Think, To Understand, To Integrate, To Prove. He Has To Be Taught The Essentials Of The Knowledge Discovered In The Past-and He Has To Be Equipped To Acquire Further Knowledge By His Own Effort.

I Came Here To Say That I Do Not Recognize Anyone's Right To One Minute Of My Life.

Did I Feel A Physical Desire For Him? I Did. Was I Moved By A Passion Of My Body? I Was. Have I Experienced The Most Violent Form Of Sensual Pleasure? I Have.

What I Am Fighting Is The Idea That Charity Is A Moral Duty And A Primary Virtue.

You Have Been The One Encounter In My Life That Can Never Be Repeated

To Say 'i Love You' One Must First Be Able To Say The 'i.'

The Men Who Are Not Interested In Philosophy Need It Most Urgently; They Are Most Helplessly In Its Power.

Under The Antitrust Laws, A Man Becomes A Criminal From The Moment He Goes Into Business, No Matter What He Does. If He Complies With One Of These Laws, He Faces Criminal Prosecution Under Several Others. For Instance, If He Charges Prices Which Some Bureaucrats Judge As Too High, He Can Be Prosecuted For Monopoly Or For A Successful 'intent To Monopolize'; If He Charges Prices Lower Than Those Of His Competitors, He Can Be Prosecuted For 'unfair Competition' Or 'restraint Of Trade'; And If He Charges The Same Prices As His Competitors, He Can Be Prosecuted For 'collusion' Or 'conspiracy.'

Happiness Is A State Of Non-contradictory Joy . . . Happiness Is Possible Only To A Rational Man, The Man Who Desires Nothing But Rational Goals, Seeks Nothing But Rational Values, And Finds His Joy In Nothing But Rational Actions.

Productiveness Is Your Acceptance Of Morality, Your Recognition Of The Fact That You Choose To Live.

Productive Work

The Truly And Deliberately Evil Men Are A Very Small Minority; It Is The Appeaser Who Unleashes Them On Mankind; It Is The Appeaser's Intellectual Abdication That Invites Them To Take Over. When A Culture's Dominant Trend Is Geared To Irrationality, The Thugs Win Over The Appeasers. When Intellectual Leaders Fail To Foster The Best In The Mixed, Unformed, Vacillating Character Of People At Large, The Thugs Are Sure To Bring Out The Worst. When The Ablest Men Turn Into Cowards, The Average Men Turn Into Brutes.

It's Not That I Don't Suffer, It's That I Know The Unimportance Of Suffering. I Know That Pain Is To Be Fought And Thrown Aside, Not To Be Accepted As Part Of One's Soul And As A Permanent Scar Across One's View Of Existence.

Aristotle May Be Regarded As The Cultural Barometer Of Western History. Whenever His Influence Dominated The Scene, It Paved The Way For One Of History's Brilliant Eras; Whenever It Fell, So Did Mankind.

The World Is Perishing From An Orgy Of Self-sacrificing.

Joy Is The Goal Of Existence, And Joy Is Not To Be Stumbled Upon, But To Be Achieved, And The Act Of Treason Is To Let Its Vision Drown In The Swamp Of The Moment's Torture.

The Men Of The Press, Who Despised Their Own Profession, Did Not Know Why They Were Enjoying It Today. One Of Them, A Young Man With Years Of Notorious Success Behind Him And A Cynical Look Of Twice His Age, Said Suddenly, 'i Know What I'd Like To Be: I Wish I Could Be A Man Who Covers News!'

In A Free Society, One Does Not Have To Deal With Those Who Are Irrational. One Is Free To Avoid Them.

A Society Without Intellectuals Is Like A Body Without A Head

Live And Act Within The Limit Of Your Knowledge And Keep Expanding It To The Limit Of Your Life.

But You See," Said Roark Quietly, "i Have, Let’s Say, Sixty Years To Live. Most Of That Time Will Be Spent Working. I’ve Chosen The Work I Want To Do. If I Find No Joy In It, Then I’m Only Condemning Myself To Sixty Years Of Torture. And I Can Find The Joy Only If I Do My Work In The Best Way Possible To Me. But The Best Is A Matter Of Standards—and I Set My Own Standards. I Inherit Nothing. I Stand At The End Of No Tradition. I May, Perhaps, Stand At The Beginning Of One.

The Question Of Whether One Alleges The Superiority Or Inferiority Of Any Given Race Is Irrelevant; Racism Has Only One Psychological Root: The Racist's Sense Of His Own Inferiority.

You Love Only Those Who Deserve It.

Abortion Is A Moral Right-which Should Be Left To The Sole Discretion Of The Woman Involved; Morally, Nothing Other Than Her Wish In The Matter Is To Be Considered. Who Can Conceivably Have The Right To Dictate To Her What Disposition She Is To Make Of The Functions Of Her Body?

Men Have Been Taught That It Is A Virtue To Stand Together. But The Creator Is The Man Who Stands Alone.

For Centuries, The Battle Of Morality Was Fought Between Those Who Claimed That Your Life Belongs To God And Those Who Claimed That It Belongs To Your Neighbors - Between Those Who Preached That The Good Is Self-sacrifice For The Sake Of Ghosts In Heaven And Those Who Preached That The Good Is Self-sacrifice For The Sake Of Incompetents On Earth. And No One Came To Say That Your Life Belongs To You And That The Good Is To Live It.

Individualism Regards Man-every Man-as An Independent, Sovereign Entity Who Possesses An Inalienable Right To His Own Life, A Right Derived From His Nature As A Rational Being.

You Love People, Not For What You Do For Them Or What They Do For You. You Love Them For Their Values; Their Virtues.

Through All The Centuries Of The Worship Of The Mindless, Whatever Stagnation Humanity Chose To Endure, Whatever Brutality To Practice-it Was Only By The Grace Of The Men Who Perceived That Wheat Must Have Water In Order To Grow, That Stones Laid In A Curve Will Form An Arch, That Two And Two Make Four, That Love Is Not Served By Torture And Life Is Not Fed By Destruction-only By The Grace Of Those Men Did The Rest Of Them Learn To Experience Moments When They Caught The Spark Of Being Human.

I Say That Man Is Entitled To His Own Happiness And That He Must Achieve It Himself. But That He Cannot Demand That Others Give Up Their Lives To Make Him Happy.

Great Men Can't Be Ruled.

If You Ask Me To Name The Proudest Distinction Of Americans, I Would Choose . . . The Fact That They Were The People Who Created The Phrase "to Make Money." No Other Language Or Nation Had Ever Used These Words Before. . . . Americans Were The First To Understand That Wealth Has To Be Created.

Kant Is The Most Evil Man In Mankind's History.

God... A Being Whose Only Definition Is That He Is Beyond Man's Power To Conceive.

Did It Ever Occur To You, That There Is No Conflict Of Interests Among Men, Neither In Business Nor In Trade Nor In Their Most Personal Desires - If They Omit The Irrational From Their View Of The Possible And Destruction From Their View Of The Practical?

I Am Speaking To Those Among You Who Have Retained Some Sovereign Shred Of Their Soul, Unsold And Unstamped: '- To The Order Of Others'. If, In The Chaos Of The Motives That Have Made You Listen To The Radio Tonight, There Was An Honest, Rational Desire To Learn What Is Wrong With The World, You Are The Man Whom I Wished To Address. By The Rules And Terms Of My Code, One Owes A Rational Statement To Those Whom It Does Concern And Who Are Making An Effort To Know. Those Who Are Making An Effort To Fail To Understand Me, Are Not A Concern Of Mine.

One Must Differentiate Between One's Thoughts And One's Emotions With Full Clarity And Precision...no Discussion, Cooperation, Agreement, Or Understanding Is Possible Among Men Who Substitute Emotion For Proof.

A Society That Robs An Individual Of The Product Of His Effort ... Is Not Strictly Speaking A Society, But A Mob Held Together By Institutionalized Gang Violence.

If You Want To Feel Good, Be Rational.

Through All The Years That I Spent Formulating My Philosophical System, I Was Looking Desperately For “intelligent Agreement” Or At Least For “intelligent Disagreement.” I Found Neither. Today, I Am Not Looking For “intelligent Disagreement” Any Longer ... What I Am Looking For Is Intelligent Agreement.

Even In Dialogue, Your Own Style Rules Your Selection. Do Not Give Yourself A Blank Check Of This Kind: 'i'll Merely Reproduce What I Think A Character Like So-and-so Would Say.' You Have To Reproduce It In The Way Your Literary Premises Dictate.

That Which Exists Possesses Identity; He Could Keep It Out Of Existence By Refusing To Identify It.

Love Is Our Response To Our Highest Values. Love Is Self-enjoyment. The Noblest Love Is Born Out Of Admiration Of Another's Values.

One Method Of Destroying A Concept Is By Diluting Its Meaning. Observe That By Ascribing Rights To The Unborn, I.e., The Nonliving, The Anti-abortionists Obliterate The Rights Of The Living.

That's A Cute Sentence: The Years To Come. Why Are You So Sure They're Coming?

Never Think Of Pain Or Danger Or Enemies A Moment Longer Than Is Necessary To Fight Them.

Learn To Distinguish The Difference Between Errors Of Knowledge And Breaches Of Morality

No Value Is Higher Than Self-esteem, But You've Invested It In Counterfeit Securities-and Now Your Morality Has Caught You In A Trap Where You Are Forced To Protect Your Self-esteem By Fighting For The Creed Of Self-destruction. The Grim Joke Is On You: That Need Of Self-esteem, Which You're Unable To Explain Or To Define, Belongs To My Morality, Not Yours; It's The Objective Token Of My Code, It Is My Proof Within Your Own Soul.

The Man Who Lets A Leader Prescribe His Course Is A Wreck Being Towed To The Scrap Heap.

Why Have You Been Staring At Me Ever Since We Met? Because I’m Not The Gail Wynand You’d Heard About. You See, I Love You. And Love Is Exception-making. If You Were In Love You’d Want To Be Broken, Trampled, Ordered, Dominated, Because That’s The Impossible, In The Inconceivable For You In Your Relations With People. That Would Be The One Gift, The Great Exception You’d Want To Offer The Man You Loved. But It Wouldn’t Be Easy For You.

Integrity Is The Recognition Of The Fact That You Cannot Fake Your Consciousness, Just As Honesty Is The Recognition Of The Fact That You Cannot Fake Existence.

If You Write A Whole Line Of Zeroes, It's Still — Nothing.

Every Government Interference In The Economy Consists Of Giving An Unearned Benefit, Extorted By Force, To Some Men At The Expense Of Others.

Inflation Is Not Caused By The Actions Of Private Citizens, But By The Government: By An Artificial Expansion Of The Money Supply Required To Support Deficit Spending. No Private Embezzlers Or Bank Robbers In History Have Ever Plundered People's Savings On A Scale Comparable To The Plunder Perpetrated By The Fiscal Policies Of Statist Governments.

Ideas Cannot Be Fought Except By Means Of Better Ideas. The Battle Consists, Not Of Opposing, But Of Exposing; Not Of Denouncing, But Of Disproving; Not Of Evading, But Of Boldly Proclaiming A Full, Consistent, And Radical Alternative.

A Creative Man Is Motivated By The Desire To Achieve, Not By The Desire To Beat Others.

Not Selfishness, But Precisely The Absence Of A Self. Look At Them. The Man Who Cheats And Lies, But Preserves A Respectable Front. He Knows Himself To Be Dishonest, But Others Think He’s Honest And He Derives His Self-respect From That, Second-hand. The Man Who Takes Credit For An Achievement Which Is Not His Own. He Knows Himself To Be Mediocre, But He’s Great In The Eyes Of Others.

To Love Is To Value. Only A Rationally Selfish Man, A Man Of Self Esteem, Is Capable Of Love - Because He Is The Only Man Capable Of Holding Firm, Consistent, Uncompromising, Unbetrayed Value. The Man Who Does Not Value Himself, Cannot Value Anything Or Anyone

Productiveness Is Your Acceptance Of Morality, Your Recognition Of The Fact That You Choose To Live-that Productive Work Is The Process By Which Man's Consciousness Controls His Existence, A Constant Process Of Acquiring Knowledge And Shaping Matter To Fit One's Purpose, Of Translating An Idea Into Physical Form, Of Remaking The Earth In The Image Of One's Values-that All Work Is Creative Work If Done By A Thinking Mind.

It's Easy To Run To Others. It's So Hard To Stand On One's Own Record. You Can Fake Virtue For An Audience. You Can't Fake It In Your Own Eyes. Your Ego Is Your Strictest Judge. They Run From It. They Spend Their Lives Running. It's Easier To Donate A Few Thousand To Charity And Think Oneself Noble Than To Base Self-respect On Personal Standards Of Personal Achievement. It's Simple To Seek Substitutes For Competence--such Easy Substitutes: Love, Charm, Kindness, Charity. But There Is No Substitute For Competence.

Money Will Not Purchase Happiness For The Man Who Has No Concept Of What He Wants.

A Morality That Holds Need As A Claim, Holds Emptiness-non-existence-as Its Standard Of Value; It Rewards An Absence, A Defect: Weakness, Inability, Incompetence, Suffering, Disease, Disaster, The Lack, The Fault, The Flaw-the Zero.

He Stepped To The Window And Pointed To The Skyscrapers Of The City. He Said That We Had To Extinguish The Lights Of The World, And When We Would See The Lights Of New York Go Out, We Would Know That Our Job Was Done.

It Is My Eyes Which See, And The Sight Of My Eyes Grants Beauty To The Earth.

You'll Get Everything Society Can Give A Man. You'll Keep All The Money. You'll Take Any Fame Or Honor Anyone Might Want To Grant. You'll Accept Such Gratitude As The Tenants Might Feel. And I - I'll Take What Nobody Can Give A Man, Except Himself. I Will Have Built Cortlandt. - Howard Roark

By What He Chooses To Present And By How He Presents It, Any Author Expresses His Fundamental, Metaphysical Values.

In Western Civilization, The Period Ruled By Mysticism Is Known As The 'dark Ages' And The 'middle Ages'. I Will Assume That You Know The Nature Of That Period And The State Of Human Existence In Those Ages. The Renaissance Broke The Rules Of The Mystics. "renaissance" Means The "rebirth". Few People Today Will Care To Remind You That It Was A Rebirth Of Reason - Of Man's Mind.

Creation Comes Before Distribution - Or There Will Be Nothing To Distribute. The Need Of The Creator Comes Before The Need Of Any Possible Beneficiary. Yet We Are Taught To Admire The Second-hander Who Dispenses Gifts He Has Not Produced Above The Man Who Made The Gifts Possible. We Praise An Act Of Charity. We Shrug At An Act Of Achievement.

Worry Is A Waste Of Emotional Reserve".

In Order To Live, Man Must Act; In Order To Act, He Must Make Choices; In Order To Make Choices, He Must Define A Code Of Values; In Order To Define A Code Of Values, He Must Know What He Is And Where He Is – I.e. He Must Know His Own Nature (including His Means Of Knowledge) And The Nature Of The Universe In Which He Acts – I.e. He Needs Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Which Means: Philosophy. He Cannot Escape From This Need; His Only Alternative Is Whether The Philosophy Guiding Him Is To Be Chosen By His Mind Or By Chance.

A Spirit, Too, Needs Fuel. It Can Run Dry.

The Government Was Set To Protect Man From Criminals-and The Constitution Was Written To Protect Man From The Government. The Bill Of Rights Was Not Directed At Private Citizens, But Against The Government-as An Explicit Declaration That Individual Rights Supersede Any Public Or Social Power.

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.

Indiscriminate Tolerance And Indiscriminate Condemnation Are Not Two Opposites: They Are Two Variants Of The Same Evasion. To Declare That “everybody Is White” Or “everybody Is Black” Or “everybody Is Neither White Nor Black, But Gray,” Is Not A Moral Judgment, But An Escape From The Responsibility Of Moral Judgment.

And Man Will Go On. Man, Not Men.

Who Was It That Said He Needed A Fulcrum? Give Me An Unobstructed Right-of-way And I'll Show Them How To Move The Earth!

Do You Mean To Tell Me That You're Thinking Seriously Of Building That Way, When And If You Are An Architect?" Yes." My Dear Fellow, Who Will Let You?" That's Not The Point. The Point Is, Who Will Stop Me?

In A Capitalist Society, All Human Relationships Are Voluntary.

Human Relations

My Dear Fellow, Who Will Let You?" "that's Not The Point. The Point Is, Who Will Stop Me?

I Write - And Read - For The Sake Of The Story... My Basic Test For Any Story Is: 'would I Want To Meet These Characters And Observe These Events In Real Life? Is This Story An Experience Worth Living Through For Its Own Sake? Is The Pleasure Of Contemplating These Characters An End Itself?

The Goal Of The 'liberals' - As It Emerges From The Record Of The Past Decades - Was To Smuggle This Country Into Welfare Statism By Means Of Single, Concrete, Specific Measures, Enlarging The Power Of The Government A Step At A Time, Never Permitting These Steps To Be Summed Up Into Principles, Never Permitting Their Direction To Be Identified Or The Basic Issue To Be Named. Thus, Statism Was To Come, Not By Vote Or By Violence, But By Slow Rot - By A Long Process Of Evasion And Epistemological Corruption, Leading To A Fait Accompli.

Do Not Let Your Fire Go Out, Spark By Irreplaceable Spark In The Hopeless Swamps Of The Not-quite, The Not-yet, And The Not-at-all. Do Not Let The Hero In Your Soul Perish In Lonely Frustration For The Life You Deserved And Have Never Been Able To Reach. The World You Desire Can Be Won. It Exists.. It Is Real.. It Is Possible.. It's Yours.

To Arrive At A Contradiction Is To Confess An Error In One's Thinking; To Maintain A Contradiction Is To Abdicate One's Mind And To Evict Oneself From The Realm Of Reality.

If He Can Give His Readers No Reason Why They Should Read His Book, Except That The Events Happened To Him, It Is Not A Valid Book.

An Emotion Is An Automatic Response, An Automatic Effect Of Man's Value Premises. An Effect, Not A Cause. There Is No Necessary Clash, No Dichotomy Between Man's Reason And His Emotions

The Verdict You Pronounce Upon The Source Of Your Livelihood Is The Verdict You Pronounce Upon Your Life.

I Can Accept Anything, Except What Seems To Be The Easiest For Most People: The Half-way, The Almost, The Just-about, The In-between.

The Mind Is The Attribute Of Man. When Man Is Born, He Comes Into Existence With Only One Weapon With Him--the Reasoning Mind.

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.

If You Want To Know The One Reason That's Taking Me Back, I'll Tell You: I Cannot Bring Myself To Abandon To Destruction All The Greatness Of The World, All That Which Was Mine And Yours, Which Was Made By Us And Is Still Ours By Right - Because I Cannot Believe That Men Refuse To See, That They Can Remain Blind And Deaf To Us Forever, When The Truth Is Ours And Their Lives Depend On Accepting It.

The Cult Of Moral Grayness Is A Revolt Against Moral Values.

As A Cultural-intellectual Power And A Moral Ideal, Collectivism Died In World War Ii. If We Are Still Rolling In Its Direction, It Is Only By The Inertia Of A Void And The Momentum Of Disintegration. A Social Movement That Began With The Ponderous, Brain-cracking, Dialectical Constructs Of Hegel And Marx, And Ends Up With A Horde Of Morally Unwashed Children Stamping Their Foot And Shrieking: "i Want It Now Is Through."

Tell Me What A Person Finds Sexually Attractive And I Will Tell You Their Entire Philosophy Of Life. Show Me The Person They Sleep With And I Will Tell You Their Valuation Of Themselves.

Men Have Been Taught That It Is A Virtue To Agree With Others. But The Creator Is The Man Who Disagrees. Men Have Been Taught That It Is A Virtue To Swim With The Current. But The Creator Is The Man Who Goes Against The Current. Men Have Been Taught That It Is A Virtue To Stand Together. But The Creator Is The Man Who Stands Alone.

Do Not Ever Say That The Desire To 'do Good' By Force Is A Good Motive. Neither Power-lust Nor Stupidity Are Good Motives.

There Are Only Two Means By Which Men Can Deal With One Another: Guns Or Logic. Force Or Persuasion. Those Who Know That They Cannot Win By Means Of Logic, Have Always Resorted To Guns.

It Is Not Death That We Wish To Avoid, But Life That We Wish To Live.

The Difference Between [socialism And Fascism] Is Superficial And Purely Formal, But It Is Significant Psychologically: It Brings The Authoritarian Nature Of A Planned Economy Crudely Into The Open. The Main Characteristic Of Socialism (and Of Communism) Is Public Ownership Of The Means Of Production, And, Therefore, The Abolition Of Private Property. The Right To Property Is The Right Of Use And Disposal. Under Fascism, Men Retain The Semblance Or Pretense Of Private Property, But The Government Holds Total Power Over Its Use And Disposal.

An Individualist Is A Man Who Says: 'i Will Not Run Anyone's Life - Nor Let Anyone Run Mine. I Will Not Rule Or Be Ruled. I Will Not Be A Master Nor A Slave. I Will Not Sacrifice Myself To Anyone - Nor Sacrifice Anyone To Myself.'

Francisco Could Do Anything He Undertook, He Could Do It Better Than Anyone Else, And He Did It Without Effort. There Was No Boasting In His Manner And Consciousness, No Thought Of Comparison. His Attitude Was Not: 'i Can Do It Better Than You,' But Simply: 'i Can Do It.' What He Meant By Doing Was Doing Superlatively.

There Are Two Principles On Which All Men Of Intellectual Integrity And Good Will Can Agree, As A 'basic Minimum,' As A Precondition Of Any Discussion, Co-operation Or Movement Toward An Intellectual Renaissance. . . . They Are Not Axioms, But Until A Man Has Proved Them To Himself And Has Accepted Them, He Is Not Fit For An Intellectual Discussion. These Two Principles Are: A. That Emotions Are Not Tools Of Cognition; B. That No Man Has The Right To Initiate The Use Of Physical Force Against Others.

It Only Stands To Reason That Where There's Sacrifice, There's Someone Collecting The Sacrificial Offerings. Where There's Service, There Is Someone Being Served. The Man Who Speaks To You Of Sacrifice Is Speaking Of Slaves And Masters, And Intends To Be The Master.

Ask Yourself Whether The Dream Of Heaven And Greatness Should Be Waiting For Us In Our Graves - Or Whether It Should Be Ours Here And Now And On This Earth.

The Man-worshipers, In My Sense Of The Term, Are Those Who See Man's Highest Potential And Strive To Actualize It. The Man-haters Are Those Who Regard Man As A Helpless, Depraved, Contemptible Creature-and Struggle Never To Let Him Discover Otherwise.

Man's Unique Reward, However, Is That While Animals Survive By Adjusting Themselves To Their Background, Man Survives By Adjusting His Background To Himself.

Since A Rational Man's Ambition Is Unlimited, Since His Pursuit And Achievement Of Values Is A Life-long Process — And The Higher The Values, The Harder The Struggle — He Needs A Moment, An Hour Or Some Period Of Time In Which He Can Experience The Sense Of His Completed Task, The Sense Of Living In A Universe Where His Values Have Been Successfully Achieved.

The Nation Which Once Held The Creed That Greatness Is Achieved By Production, Is Now Told That It Is Achieved By Squalor.

Whatever May Be Open To Disagreement, There Is One Act Of Evil That May Not, The Act That No Man May Commit Against Others And No Man May Sanction Or Forgive. So Long As Men Desire To Live Together, No Man May Initiate—do You Hear Me? No Man May Start—the Use Of Physical Force Against Others.

I Think That When In Doubt About The Truth Of An Issue, It's Safer And In Better Taste To Select The Least Numerous Of The Adversaries.

Ferris: Are You Going To Be As Impractical As That? Rearden: The Evaluation Of An Action As Practical, Dr. Ferris, Depends On What It Is That One Wishes To Practice. Ferris: Haven't You Always Placed Your Self-interest Above All Else? Rearden: That Is What I Am Doing Right Now.

As We Gain Knowledge, We Do Not Become More Certain, We Become Certain Of More.

Have You Noticed That The Imbecile Always Smiles? Man's First Frown Is The First Touch Of God On His Forehead. The Touch Of Thought.

Place Nothing Above The Verdict Of Your Own Mind.

Truth Is The Recognition Of Reality; Reason, Man's Only Means Of Knowledge, Is His Only Standard Of Truth.

Individual Rights Are The Means Of Subordinating Society To Moral Law.

America’s Founding Ideal Was The Principle Of Individual Rights. Nothing More-and Nothing Less. The Rest-everything That America Achieved, Everything She Became, Everything 'noble And Just,' And Heroic, And Great, And Unprecedented In Human History-was The Logical Consequence Of Fidelity To That One Principle.

And He Said Her Name To Fill The Space Of Five Years.

A Culture Is Not The Anonymous Product Of Undifferentiate D Masses, But The Sum Of The Intellectual Achievements Of Individual Men.

To Hold An Unchanging Youth Is To Reach At The End, The Vision With Which One Started.

The Truth Is Not For All Men, But Only For Those Who Seek It.

Civilization Is The Progress Toward A Society Of Privacy.

Progress Of Society

I Love You. As The Same Value, As The Same Expression, With The Same Pride And The Same Meaning As I Love My Work, My Mills, My Metal, My Hours At A Desk, At A Furnace, In A Laboratory, In An Ore Mine, As I Love My Ability To Work, As I Love The Act Of Sight And Knowledge, As I Love The Action Of My Mind When It Solves A Chemical Equation Or Grasps A Sunrise, As I Love The Things I've Made And The Things I've Felt, As *my* Product, As *my* Choice, As A Shape Of My World, As My Best Mirror, As The Wife I've Never Had, As That Which Makes All The Rest Of It Possible: As My Power To Live.

If Men Want To Oppose War, It Is Statism That They Must Oppose. So Long As They Hold The Tribal Notion That The Individual Is Sacrificial Fodder For The Collective, That Some Men Have The Right To Rule Others By Force, And That Some (any) Alleged “good” Can Justify It-there Can Be No Peace Within A Nation And No Peace Among Nations.

One Can Study What Exists And How Consciousness Functions; But One Cannot Analyze (or “prove”) Existence As Such, Or Consciousness As Such. These Are Irreducible Primaries. (an Attempt To “prove” Them Is Self-contradict Ory: It Is An Attempt To “prove” Existence By Means Of Nonexistence, And Consciousness By Means Of Unconsciousness .)

Self-esteem Is Reliance On One's Power To Think. It Cannot Be Replaced By One's Power To Deceive. The Self-confidence Of A Scientist And The Self-confidence Of A Con Man Are Not Interchangeable States, And Do Not Come From The Same Psychological Universe. The Success Of A Man Who Deals With Reality Augments His Self-confidence. The Success Of A Con Man Augments His Panic.

It Is Too Early To Feel Fear Of The Future When One Is Under 30, And Too Late After That. What I Mean Is That One Must Never Allow Fear To Become One's Permanent Sense Of Life. The Important Thing Is To Prepare Yourself Intellectually To Deal With Whatever Circumstances You May Encounter, Which Requires That You Define Your Values Fully, Clearly And Rationally -- And Never Betray Them.

The Quickest Way To Kill The Human Spirit Is To Ask Someone To Do Mediocre Work.

Patience Is Always Rewarded And Romance Is Always Round The Corner!

A 'mixed Economy' Is A Society In The Process Of Committing Suicide.

Words Are A Lens To Focus One's Mind.

All Work Is An Act Of Philosophy.

Professional Intellectuals Are The Voice Of A Culture And Are, Therefore, Its Leaders, Its Integrators And Its Bodyguards.

Love Is Not Self-sacrifice, But The Most Profound Assertion Of Your Own Needs And Values. It Is For Your Own Happiness That You Need The Person You Love, And That Is The Greatest Compliment, The Greatest Tribute You Can Pay To That Person.

Freedom Of Association Includes The Freedom Not To Associate.

She Watched The Prairies The Rivers, The Towns Slipping Past At An Untouchable Distance Below - And She Noted That The Sense Of Detachment One Feels When Looking At The Earth From A Plane Was The Same Sense She Felt When Looking At People: Only Her Distance From People Seemed Longer. - Dagny Taggart

The Government Was Set To Protect Man From Criminals, And The Constitution Was Written To Protect Man From The Government.

Libertarian Party

Happiness Is That State Of Consciousness Which Proceeds From The Achievement Of One's Values.

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

I've Always Thought That A Feeling Which Changes Never Existed In The First Place.

Do It First And Feel About It Afterwards.' - Dagny Taggart

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.

But Why Should You Care What People Will Say? All You Have To Do Is Please Yourself.

It's The Person Who Would Sell His Soul For A Nickel, Who Is Loudest In Proclaiming His Hatred Of Money.... Let Me Give You A Tip On Men's Characters: The Man Who Damns Money Has Obtained It Dishonorably; The Man Who Respects It Has Earned It. Run For Your Life From Any Man Who Tells You That Money Is Evil. That Sentence Is The...bell Of An Approaching Looter.

Capitalism Was The Only System In History Where Wealth Was Not Acquired By Looting, But By Production, Not By Force, But By Trade, The Only System That Stood For Man's Right To His Own Mind, To His Work, To His Life, To His Happiness, To Himself.

The First Society In History Whose Leaders Were Neither Attilas Nor Witch Doctors, A Society Led, Dominated And Created By The Producers, Was The United States Of America.

What Is The Basic, The Essential, The Crucial Principle That Differentiates Freedom From Slavery? It Is The Principle Of Voluntary Action Versus Physical Coercion Or Compulsion.

Don't Worry. They're All Against Me. But I Have One Advantage: They Don't Know What They Want. I Do.

I Never Found Beauty In Longing For The Impossible And Never Found The Possible To Be Beyond My Reach.

Are You In A Universe Which Is Ruled By Natural Laws And, Therefore, Is Stable, Firm, Absolute - And Knowable? Or Are You In An Incomprehensible Chaos, A Realm Of Inexplicable Miracles, An Unpredictable, Unknowable Flux, Which Your Mind Is Impotent To Grasp? The Nature Of Your Actions - And Of Your Ambition - Will Be Different, According To Which Set Of Answers You Come To Accept.

Since Time Immemorial And Pre-industrial, 'greed' Has Been The Accusation Hurled At The Rich By The Concrete-bound Illiterates Who Were Unable To Conceive Of The Source Of Wealth Or Of The Motivation Of Those Who Produce It.

A Businessman Cannot Force You To Buy His Product; If He Makes A Mistake, He Suffers The Consequences; If He Fails, He Takes The Loss. If Bureaucrat Makes A Mistake, You Suffer The Consequences; If He Fails, He Passes The Loss On To You.

The View That Man Was Ever To Be Drawn By Some Vision Of The Unattainable Shining Ahead, Doomed Ever To Aspire, But Not To Achieve, My Life And My Values Could Not Bring Me To That.

The More Neurotic And Evasive A Person Is, The Shorter The Range Of His Interests.

Mr. Ward, What Is It That The Foulest Bastards On Earth Denounce Us For, Among Other Things? Oh Yes, For Our Motto Of 'business As Usual.' Well-business As Usual, Mr. Ward!

Existence Is Identity, Consciousness Is Identification.

I Am Interested In Politics Only In Order To Secure And Protect Freedom.

Man Is A Being With Free Will; Therefore, Each Man Is Potentially Good Or Evil, And It's Up To Him And Only Him (through His Reasoning Mind) To Decide Which He Wants To Be.

Just As Man's Physical Existence Was Liberated When He Grasped That 'nature, To Be Commanded, Must Be Obeyed', So His Consciousness Will Be Liberated When Grasps That Nature, To Be Apprehended, Must Be Obeyed - That The Rules Of Cognition Must Be Derived From The Nature Of Existence And The Nature, The Identity, Of His Cognitive Faculty.

It's So Graceless, Being A Martyr. It's Honoring Your Adversaries Too Much.

Any Group Or "collective," Large Or Small, Is Only A Number Of Individuals. A Group Can Have No Rights Other Than The Rights Of Its Individual Members. In A Free Society, The "rights" Of Any Group Are Derived From The Rights Of Its Members Through Their Voluntary Individual Choice And Contractual Agreement, And Are Merely The Application Of These Individual Rights To A Specific Undertaking... A Group, As Such, Has No Rights.

Individual Choice

You Can Avoid Reality, But You Cannot Avoid The Consequences Of Avoiding Reality.

Collectivism Requires Self-sacrifice, The Subordination Of One's Interests To Those Of Others.

One Can't Love Man Without Hating Most Of The Creatures Who Pretend To Bear His Name.

I'm Not Brave Enough To Be A Coward; I See The Consequences Too Clearly.

Have You Ever Felt A Potential Love For Someone? Like, You Don't Actually Love Them And You Know You Don't, But You Know You Could. You Realise That You Could Easily Fall In Love With Them. It's Almost Like The Bud Of A Flower, Ready To Blossom But It's Just Not Quite There Yet. And You Like Them A Lot, You Really Do. You Think About Them Often, But You Don't Love Them. You Could, Though. You Know You Could.

Falling In Love

Individualism Regards Man - Every Man - As An Independent, Sovereign Entity Who Possesses An Inalienable Right To His Own Life, A Right Derived From His Nature As A Rational Being. Individualism Holds That A Civilized Society, Or Any Form Of Association, Cooperation Or Peaceful Co-existence Among Men, Can Be Achieved Only On The Basis Of The Recognition Of Individual Rights - And That A Group, As Such, Has No Rights Other Than The Individual Rights Of Its Members.

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 . . . .

The Most Depraved Type Of Human Being ... (is) The Man Without A Purpose.

Integrity Is The Ability To Stand By An Idea.

I Got The Idea [for Anthem's Theme] In My School Days, In Soviet Russia, When I Heard All The Vicious Attacks On Individualism, And Asked Myself What The World Would Be Like If Men Lost The Word 'i.'

It's The Person Who Would Sell His Soul For A Nickel, Who Is Loudest In Proclaiming His Hatred Of Money.

If You Get Caught At Some Crucial Point And Somebody Tells You That Your Doctrine Doesn't Make Sense - You're Ready For Him. You Tell Him There's Something Above Sense. That Here He Must Not Try To Think, He Must Feel. He Must Believe. Suspend Reason And You Can Play It Deuces Wild.

If That's The Price Of Getting Together, Then I'll Be Damned If I Want To Live On The Same Earth With Any Human Beings! If The Rest Of Them Can Survive Only By Destroying Us, Then Why Should We Wish Them To Survive? Nothing Can Make Self-immolation Proper. Nothing Can Give Them The Right To Turn Men Into Sacrificial Animals. Nothing Can Make It Moral To Destroy The Best. One Can't Be Punished For Being Good. One Can't Be Penalized For Ability. If That Is Right, Then We'd Better Start Slaughtering One Another, Because There Isn't Any Right At All In The World!

There Is Fear Hanging In The Air Of The Sleeping Halls, And The Air Of The Streets. Fear Walks Through The City, Fear Without Name, Without Shape. All Men Feel It And None Dare Speak.

Whenever Anyone Accuses Some Person Of Being 'unfeeling,' He Means That That Person Is Just.

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