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People Said It Because Other People Said It. They Did Not Know Why It Was Being Said And Heard Everywhere. They Did Not Give Or Ask For Reasons.
-Ayn Rand
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People Said It Because

Ayn Rand
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People Said It Because Other People Said It. They Did Not Know Why It Was Being Said And Heard Everywhere. They Did Not Give Or Ask For Reasons.

Understanding the Quote: "people said it because other people said it. they did not know..."

This quote by Ayn Rand reflects deeply on the theme of people. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under People, Giving, Reason, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Ayn Rand interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand is celebrated for insightful thoughts on people and giving. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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People
Giving
Reason
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God Help Us, Ma'am! Do You See What We Saw? We Saw That We'd Been Given A Law To Live By, A Moral Law, They Called It, Which Punished Those Who Observed It - For Observing It. The More You Tried To Live Up To It, The More You Suffered; The More You Cheated It, The Bigger Reward You Got. Your Honesty Was Like A Tool Left At The Mercy Of The Next Man's Dishonesty. The Honest Ones Paid, The Dishonest Collected. The Honest Lost, The Dishonest Won. How Long Could Men Stay Good Under This Sort Of A Law Of Goodness?
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... Reason Accepts No Commandments.
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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.
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Their Eyes Were Dark And Hard And Glowing, With No Fear In Them, No Kindness And No Guilt.
Kindness
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People, He Thought, Were As Hungry For A Sight Of Joy As He Had Always Been--for A Moment's Relief From That Gray Load Of Suffering Which Seemed So Inexplicable And Unnecessary. He Had Never Been Able To Understand Why Men Should Be Unhappy.
Men
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Now Take A Human Body. Why Wouldn't You Like To See A Human Body With A Curling Tail With A Crest Of Ostrich Feathers At The End? And With Ears Shaped Like Acanthus Leaves? It Would Be Ornamental, You Know, Instead Of The Stark, Bare Ugliness We Have Now. Well, Why Don't You Like The Idea? Because It Would Be Useless And Pointless. Because The Beauty Of The Human Body Is That Is Hasn't A Single Muscle Which Doesn't Serve Its Purpose; That There's Not A Line Wasted; That Every Detail Of It Fits One Idea, The Idea Of A Man And The Life Of A Man.
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If You Know That This Life Is All That You Have, Wouldn't You Make The Most Of It?
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One Of The Methods Used By Statists To Destroy Capitalism Consists In Establishing Controls That Tie A Given Industry Hand And Foot, Making It Unable To Solve Its Problems, Then Declaring That Freedom Has Failed And Stronger Controls Are Necessary.
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A Rational Mind Does Not Work Under Compulsion; It Does Not Subordinate Its Grasp Of Reality To Anyone's Orders, Directives, Or Controls; It Does Not Sacrifice Its Knowledge, Its View Of The Truth, To Anyone's Opinions, Threats, Wishes, Plans.
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Achieving Life Is Not The Equivalent Of Avoiding Death.
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What Is Morality, She Asked. Judgement To Distinguish Right And Wrong, Vision To See The Truth, And Courage To Act Upon It, Dedication To That Which Is Good, Integrity To Stand By The Good At Any Price.
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Ask Anything Of Men. Ask Them To Achieve Wealth, Fame, Love, Brutality, Murder, Self-sacrifice. But Don’t Ask Them To Achieve Self-respect. They Will Hate Your Soul.
Hate
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Andrei, Did You Like The Opera?" "not Particularly." "andrei, Do You See What You're Missing?" "i Don't Think I Do, Kira. It's All Rather Silly. And Useless." "can't You Enjoy Things That Are Useless, Merely Because They Are Beautiful?" "no. But I Enjoyed It." "the Music?" "no. The Way You Listened To It.
Beautiful
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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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I Think, Therefore I'll Think.
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Contradictions Do Not Exist. Whenever You Think You Are Facing A Contradiction, Check Your Premises. You Will Find That One Of Them Is Wrong.
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But What Is Freedom? Freedom From What? There Is Nothing To Take A Man's Freedom Away From Him, Save Other Men. To Be Free, A Man Must Be Free Of His Brothers. That Is Freedom. That And Nothing Else.
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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.
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Today We Have Discovered The Word That Could Not Be Said. "i
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I've Always Thought That A Feeling Which Changes Never Existed In The First Place.
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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.
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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.
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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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Stars
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A Creative Man Is Motivated By The Desire To Achieve, Not By The Desire To Beat Others.
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You Are Damned, And We Wish To Share Your Damnation.
Wish
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Ideas, In A Free Society, Are Not A Crime- And Neither Can They Serve As The Justification Of A Crime.
Ideas
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The Good, Say The Mystics Of Spirit, Is God, A Being Whose Only Definition Is That He Is Beyond Man's Power To Conceive — A Definition That Invalidates Man's Consciousness And Nullifies His Concepts Of Existence. The Good, Say The Mystics Of Muscle, Is Society — A Thing Which They Define As An Organism That Possesses No Physical Form, A Super-being Embodied In No One In Particular And Everyone In General Except Yourself.... The Purpose Of Man's Life, Say Both, Is To Become An Abject Zombie Who Serves A Purpose He Does Not Know, For Reasons He Is Not To Question.
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The Secret Dread Of Modern Intellectuals, Liberals And Conservatives Alike, The Unadmitted Terror At The Root Of Their Anxiety, Which All Of Their Current Irrationalities Are Intended To Stave Off And To Disguise, Is The Unstated Knowledge That Soviet Russia [was] The Full, Actual, Literal, Consistent Embodiment Of The Morality Of Altruism, That Stalin Did Not Corrupt A Noble Ideal, That This Is The Only Way Altruism Has To Be Or Can Ever Be Practiced.
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The Problem Is Not Those Who Dream, But Those Who Can Only Dream.
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Creation Comes Before Distribution -- Or There Will Be Nothing To Distribute.
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Everyone Has The Right To Make His Own Decisions, But None Has The Right To Force His Decision On Others.
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The Word 'we' Is As Lime Poured Over Men, Which Sets And Hardens To Stone, And Crushes All Beneath It, And That Which Is White And That Which Is Black Are Lost Equally In The Grey Of It. It Is The Word By Which The Depraved Steal The Virtue Of The Good, By Which The Weak Steal The Might Of The Strong, By Which The Fools Steal The Wisdom Of The Sages.
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I Started My Life With A Single Absolute: That The World Was Mine To Shape In The Image Of My Highest Values And Never To Be Given Up To A Lesser Standard, No Matter How Long Or Hard The Struggle.
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You Know, I Think That Only If One Feels Immensely Important Can One Feel Truly Light.
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If A Dedication Page Were To Precede The Total Of My Work, It Would Read: To The Glory Of Man.
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The Entire History Of Science Is A Progression Of Exploded Fallacies.
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Accessories
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A Culture Is Not The Anonymous Product Of Undifferentiate D Masses, But The Sum Of The Intellectual Achievements Of Individual Men.
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Pleasure Is Nought But Virtue's Gayer Name-- I Wrong Her Still, I Rate Her Worth Too Low: Virtue The Root, And Pleasure Is The Flow'r.
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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.
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Whenever Anyone Accuses Some Person Of Being 'unfeeling,' He Means That That Person Is Just. He Means That That Person Has No Causeless Emotions And Will Not Grant Him A Feeling Which He Does Not Deserve. He Means That 'to Feel' Is To Go Against Reason, Against Moral Values, Against Reality.
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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
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Emotions Are Inherent In Your Nature, But Their Content Is Dictated By Your Mind. Your Emotional Capacity Is An Empty Motor, And Your Values Are The Fuel With Which Your Mind Fills It.
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Do Not Keep Silent When Your Own Ideas And Values Are Being Attacked. If A Dictatorship Ever Comes To This Country, It Will Be By The Fault Of Those Who Keep Silent. We Are Still Free Enough To Speak. Do We Have Time? No One Can Tell.
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Men
Should Have
All Public Projects Are Mausoleums, Not Always In Shapes, But Always In Cost.
Government
Cost
Shapes
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.'
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Men
Law
I Consider Promiscuity Immoral. Not Because Sex Is Evil, But Because Sex Is Too Good And Too Important.
Wisdom
Sex
Philosophy
Money Will Not Purchase Happiness For The Man Who Has No Concept Of What He Wants.
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A Gun Is Not An Argument.
Gun
Argument
I Am Not Morally Obligated To Care More For A Man Than He Cares For Himself.
Men
Care
But The Mind Is An Attribute Of The Individual. There Is No Such Thing As A Collective Brain. There Is No Such Thing As A Collective Thought. An Agreement Reached By A Group Of Men Is Only A Compromise Or An Average Drawn Upon Many Individual Thoughts.
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Average
Individuality
Self-sacrifice? But It Is Precisely The Self That Cannot And Must Not Be Sacrificed.
Sacrifice
Self
Novelists
If You Tell An Amateur That His Story Is Not Good, He Always Declares Indignantly: 'oh, But It Really Happened Just Like This!' The Writer Who Doesn't Understand That This Is Beside The Point Is Not A Writer At All.
Stories
Happened
Ifs
This Was Solidarity. The Debutante Having Her Toenails Pedicured - The Housewife Buying Carrots From A Pushcart - The Bookkeeper Who Had Wanted To Be A Pianist, But Has The Excuse Of A Sister To Support - The Businessman Who Hated His Business - The Worker Who Hated His Work - The Intellectual Who Hated Everybody - All Were United As Brothers In The Luxury Of Common Anger That Cured Boredom And Took Them Out Of Themselves, And They Knew Well Enough What A Blessing It Was To Be Taken Out Of Themselves.
Brother
Taken
Blessing
Censorship' Is A Term Pertaining Only To Governmental Action. No Private Action Is Censorship. No Private Individual Or Agency Can Silence A Man Or Suppress A Publication; Only The Government Can Do So. The Freedom Of Speech Of Private Individuals Includes The Right Not To Agree, Not To Listen And Not To Finance One's Own Antagonists.
Men
Agency
Silence
Just As Man Can't Exist Without His Body, So No Rights Can Exist Without The Right To Translate One's Rights Into Reality, To Think, To Work And Keep The Results, Which Means: The Right Of Property.
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Mean
Reality
If It's Worth Doing, It's Worth Overdoing.
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There Were Things In My Past Which I Have Not Liked. But All The Things Of Which I Was Proud Will Remain.
Past
Proud
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Sacrifice
Wish
She Had Learned, In The Slums Of Her Childhood, That Honest People Were Never Touchy About The Matter Of Being Trusted.
Trust
Honesty
People
It Was Beautiful And Rare, And You Have Every Right To Despise Me." She Stood Pressed To The Wall, Not Moving. "when You Came In, I Thought 'send Her Away.' But I Knew That If You Went Away, I'd Run After You. I Thought 'i Won't Say A Word.' But I Knew That You'd Know It Before You Left. I Love You. I Know You'd Think Kindlier Of Me If I Said That I Hate You.
Beautiful
Running
Wall
It's So Graceless, Being A Martyr. It's Honoring Your Adversaries Too Much.
Too Much
Martyr
Adversaries
All Depressions Are Caused By Government Interference And The Cure Is Always Offered To Take More Of The Poison That Caused The Disaster. Depressions Are Not The Result Of A Free Economy.
Government
Liberty
Poison
It Is Not Fools That I Seek To Address.
Addresses
Fool
Whoever Defends His Own Rights Defends The Rights Of All.
Rights
We Are On Strike Against Martyrdom—and Against The Moral Code That Demands It. We Are On Strike Against Those Who Believe That One Man Must Exist For The Sake Of Another. We Are On Strike Against The Morality Of Cannibals, Be It Practiced In Body Or In Spirit. We Will Not Deal With Men On Any Terms But Ours—and Our Terms Are A Moral Code Which Holds That Man Is An End In Himself And Not The Means To Any End Of Others.
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Mean
Men
If One Doesn't Respect Oneself One Can Have Neither Love Nor Respect For Others.
Inspirational
Respect
Ethics
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.
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Ideas
Battle
It Is Easier To Donate A Few Thousand To Charity And Think Oneself Noble Than To Base Self-respect On Personal Standards Of Personal Achievement.
Thinking
Self
Achievement
I Am Only Concerned With Politics So I May See The Day When I Don't Have To Be Concerned With Politics.
May
Politics
Concerned
Since Nature Does Not Endow All Men With Equal Beauty Or Equal Intelligence, And The Faculty Of Volition Leads Men To Make Different Choices, The Egalitarians Propose To Abolish The "unfairness" Of Nature And Of Volition, And To Establish Universal Equality In Fact - In Defiance Of Facts. It Is Not Equality Before The Law That They Seek, But Inequality: The Establishment Of An Inverted Social Pyramid, With A New Aristocracy On Top - The Aristocracy Of Non-value.
Equality
Men
Law
Sacrifice Is The Surrender Of That Which You Value In Favor Of Which You Dont
Sacrifice
Favors
Surrender
The More Neurotic And Evasive A Person Is, The Shorter The Range Of His Interests.
Range
Interest
Neurotic
"mediocrity" Doesn't Mean Average Intelligence, It Means An Average Intelligence That Resents And Envies Its Betters.
Mean
Average
Gossip
Consider The Reasons Which Make Us Certain That We Are Right, But Not The Fact That We Are Certain. If You Are Not Convinced, Ignore Our Certainty. Don't Be Tempted To Substitute Our Judgment For Your Own.
Temptation
Facts
Judgment
The Writer Who Develops A Beautiful Style, But Has Nothing To Say, Represents A Kind Of Arrested Esthetic Development; He Is Like A Pianist Who Acquires A Brilliant Technique By Playing Finger-exercises, But Never Gives A Concert.
Beautiful
Exercise
Giving
Racism Is A Doctrine Of, By And For Brutes.
Racism
Doctrine
Brutes
I Refuse To Apologize For My Ability -- I Refuse To Apologize For My Success -- I Refuse To Apologize For My Money. If This Is Evil, Make The Most Of It.
Money
Evil
Apologizing
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Mean
Animal
Men
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Mean
Sacrifice
Rejection
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Reason
Supremacy
Egoism
I Have No Faith At All. I Only Hold Convictions.
Conviction
Every Loneliness Is A Pinnacle
Loneliness
Pinnacle
She Started Off, Walking Fast, As If The Speed Of Her Steps Could Give Form To The Things She Felt.
Giving
Steps
Speed
When Men Abandon Reason, Physical Force Becomes Their Only Means Of Dealing With One Another And Of Settling Disagreements.
Mean
Men
Novelists
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.
Majority Rule
Liberty
Principles
Unjust Laws Have To Be Fought Ideologically; They Cannot Be Fought Or Corrected By Means Of Mere Disobedience And Futile Martyrdom.
Mean
Law
Unjust
Love Is The Expression Of One's Values, The Greatest Reward You Can Earn For The Moral Qualities You Have Achieved In Your Character And Person, The Emotional Price Paid By One Man For The Joy He Receives From The Virtues Of Another.
Love
Life
Character
It Is Not Death That We Wish To Avoid, But Life That We Wish To Live.
Inspirational
Wish
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.
Mistake
Suffering
Businessman
I Loathe Your Ideals Because I Know No Worse Injustice Than The Giving Of The Undeserved.
Giving
Novelists
Philosopher
We Are Born Into This World Unarmed - Our Mind Is Our Only Weapon.
Mind
World
Weapons
I Am A Man Who Does Not Exist For Others.
Men
Doe
Fountainhead
I Made My Fortune By Being Able To Spot A Certain Kind Of Man.
Men
Able
Kind
I Worship Individuals For Their Highest Possibilities As Individuals And I Loathe Humanity For Its Failure To Live Up To These Possibilities.
Humanity
Individuality
Worship
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.
Men
Understanding
Cooperation
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.
Mean
Animal
Men
Never Think Of Pain Or Danger Or Enemies A Moment Longer Than Is Necessary To Fight Them.
Pain
Fighting
Thinking
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.
Names
People
Firsts
Art Is The Indispensable Medium For The Communication Of A Moral Ideal.
Art
Communication
Moral
Compromise Does Not Satisfy, But Dissatisfies Everybody; It Does Not Lead To Any General Fulfillment, But To General Frustration; Those Who Try To Become Everything To All People End Up By Not Being Anything To Anyone.
Frustration
People
Trying
A 'mixed Economy' Is A Society In The Process Of Committing Suicide.
Suicide
Economics
Economy
It Is Morally Obscene To Regard Wealth As An Anonymous, Tribal Product And To Talk About 'redistributing' It.
Money
Novelists
Famous Women
Altruism Declares That Any Action Taken For The Benefit Of Others Is Good, And Any Action Taken For One's Own Benefit Is Evil. Thus The Beneficiary Of An Action Is The Only Criterion Of Moral Value - And So Long As That Beneficiary Is Anybody Other Than Oneself, Anything Goes.
Taken
Long
Evil
She Sat Leaning Back In Her Chair, Looking Ahead, Knowing That He Was As Aware Of Her As She Was Of Him. She Found Pleasure In The Special Self-consciousness It Gave Her. When She Crossed Her Legs, When She Leaned On Her Arm Against The Window Sill, When She Brushed Her Hair Off Her Forehead - Every Movement Of Her Body Was Underscored By A Feeling The Unadmitted Words For Which Were: Is He Seeing It?
Romantic
Knowing
Hair
My Happiness Is Not The Means To Any End. It Is The End. It Is Its Own Goal. It Is Its Own Purpose.
Happiness
Mean
Goal
Don't Think. Believe. Trust Your Heart, Not Your Brain. Don't Think. Feel. Believe.
Believe
Heart
Thinking
The Man Who Attempts To Live For Others Is A Dependent. He Is A Parasite In Motive And Makes Parasites Of Those He Serves.
Men
Live For Others
Fountainhead
The Man Who Produces While Others Dispose Of His Product Is A Slave.
Freedom
Men
Liberty
The Right To Life Is The Source Of All Rights -- And The Right To Property Is Their Only Implementation. Without Property Rights, No Other Rights Are Possible. Since Man Has To Sustain His Life By His Own Effort, The Man Who Has No Right To The Product Of His Effort Has No Means To Sustain His Life. The Man Who Produces While Others Dispose Of His Product, Is A Slave.
Mean
Men
Rights
The Genius Must Have His Freedom And His Independence.
Independence
Genius
The Conservatives See Man As A Body Freely Roaming The Earth, Building Sand Piles Or Factories - With An Electronic Computer Inside His Skull, Controlled From Washington. The Liberals See Man As A Soul Freewheeling To The Farthest Reaches Of The Universe - But Wearing Chains From Nose To Toes When He Crosses The Street To Buy A Loaf Of Bread.
Men
Skulls
Soul
Wealth Is The Product Of Man's Capacity To Think.
Money
Inspiration
Men
When I Disagree With A Rational Man, I Let Reality Be Our Final Arbiter; If I Am Right, He Will Learn; If I Am Wrong, I Will; One Of Us Will Win, But Both Will Profit.
Learning
Winning
Reality
A Man's Rights Are Not Violated By A Private Individual's Refusal To Deal With Him.
Men
Rights
Individualism
The ' Pleasure' Of Being Drunk Is Obviously The Pleasure Of Escaping From The Responsibility Of Consciousness.
Responsibility
Escaping
Drunk
The Word Which Can Never Die On This Earth, For It Is The Heart Of It And The Meaning And The Glory. The Sacred Word: Ego.
Heart
Self
Ego
My Pride And My Power Of Vision Were All That I Owned When I Started - And Whatever I Achieved, Was Achieved By Means Of Them. Both Are Greater Now. Now I Have The Knowledge Of The Superlative Value I Had Missed: Of My Right To Be Proud Of My Vision. The Rest Is Mine To Reach.
Knowledge
Mean
Pride
There Must Be Only Three Supreme Values Which Govern A Person's Life: Reason, Purpose, And Self-esteem. Reason, As His Only Tool Of Knowledge--purpose, As His Choice Of The Happiness Which That Tool Must Proceed To Achieve--self-esteem, As His Inviolate Certainty That His Mind Is Competent To Think And His Person Is Worthy Of Happiness, Which Means: Is Worthy Of Living. These Three Values Imply And Require All Of Man's Virtues, And All His Virtues Pertain To The Relation Of Existence And Consciousness: Rationality, Independence, Integrity, Honesty, Justice, Productiveness, Pride.
Honesty
Integrity
Self Esteem
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.
Inspirational
Success
Positive Thinking
To Know One's Own Desires, Their Meaning And Their Costs Requires The Highest Human Virtue: Rationality.
Desire
Cost
Virtue
Don't Ever Get Angry At A Man For Stating The Truth.
Truth
Honesty
Anger
Morality Pertains Only To The Sphere Of Man's Free Will - Only To Those Actions Which Are Open To His Choice.
Men
Choices
Religion
If [people] Place Such Things As Friendship And Family Ties Above Their Own Productive Work, Yes, Then They Are Immoral. Friendship, Family Life And Human Relationships Are Not Primary In A Man's Life. A Man Who Places Others First, Above His Own Creative Work, Is An Emotional Parasite.
Men
Emotional
Productive Work
Any Alleged 'right' Of One Man, Which Necessitates The Violation Of The Rights Of Another, Is Not And Cannot Be A Right.
Men
Rights
Violation
Upper Classes Are A Nation's Past; The Middle Class Is Its Future.
Future
Past
Class
And What, Incidentally, Do You Think Integrity Is? The Ability Not To Pick A Watch Out Of Your Neighbor's Pocket? No, It's Not As Easy As That. If That Were All, I'd Say Ninety-five Percent Of Humanity Were Honest, Upright Men. Only, As You Can See, They Aren't. Integrity Is The Ability To Stand By An Idea.
Integrity
Men
Thinking
Degrees Of Ability Vary, But The Basic Principle Remains The Same: The Degree Of A Man's Independence, Initiative And Personal Love For His Work Determines His Talent As A Worker And His Worth As A Man. 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. There Is No Standard Of Personal Dignity Except Independence.
Men
Independence
Principles
Freedom, In A Political Context, Means Freedom From Government Coercion. It Does Not Mean Freedom From The Landlord, From The Employer, Or Freedom From The Laws Of Nature Which Do Not Provide Men With Automatic Prosperity. It Means Freedom From The Coercive Power Of The State ' And Nothing Else
Mean
Men
Law
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?
Mean
Thinking
Way
She Thought How Strange It Would Be If She Ever Said 'hello' To Him. One Did Not Greet Oneself Each Morning.
Morning
Would Be
Strange
The Cult Of Moral Grayness Is A Revolt Against Moral Values.
Moral
Cult
Revolt
Integrity Is The Ability To Stand By An Idea.
Integrity
Ideas
Fountainhead
I Need No Warrant For Being, And No Word Of Sanction Upon My Being. I Am The Warrant And The Sanction.
Life
Power
Needs
Every Form Of Happiness Is Private. Our Greatest Moments Are Personal, Self-motivated, Not To Be Touched".
Self
Moments
Fountainhead
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.
Inspirational
Life
Motivational
In Order To Fight Any Issue, It Is Necessary To Fight For Something, Not Merely Against Something.
Fighting
Order
Issues
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.
Civilization
Two
Tea
Look Around You And Look At History. You Will See The Achievements Of Man’s Mind. You Will See Man’s Unlimited Potentiality For Greatness, And The Faculty That Makes It Possible. You Will See That Man Is Not A Helpless Monster By Nature, But He Becomes One When He Discards That Faculty: His Mind. And If You Ask Me, What Is Greatness? I Will Answer, It Is The Capacity To Live By The Three Fundamental Values Of John Galt: Reason, Purpose, Self-esteem.
Self Esteem
Greatness
Men
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.
Wish
Ignored
Affection
I Understood That Centuries Of Chains And Lashes Will Not Kill The Spirit Of Man Nor The Sense Of Truth Within Him.
Men
Spirit
Century
A Man's Sexual Choice Is The Result And The Sum Of His Fundamental Convictions.... He Will Always Be Attracted To The Woman Who Reflects His Deepest Vision Of Himself, The Woman Whose Surrender Permits Him To Experience A Sense Of Self-esteem. The Man Who Is Proudly Certain Of His Own Value, Will Want The Highest Type Of Woman He Can Find, The Woman He Admires, The Strongest, The Hardest To Conquer--because Only The Possession Of A Heroine Will Give Him The Sense Of An Achievement.
Self Esteem
Men
Giving
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.
Men
Long
Evil
To Fear To Face An Issue Is To Believe That The Worst Is True.
Fear
Believe
Issues
Every Coercive Monopoly Was Created By Government Intervention Into The Economy: By Special Privileges, Such As Franchises Or Subsidies, Which Closed The Entry Of Competitors Into A Given Field, By Legislative Action.
Government
Special
Liberty
The Virtue Involved In Helping Those One Loves Is Not 'selflessness' Or 'sacrifice,' But Integrity.
Integrity
Sacrifice
Love Is
If A Life Could Have A Theme Song - And I Believe Every Worthwhile One Has - Mine Is A Religion, An Obsession, A Mania Or All Of These Expressed In One Word - Individualism. I Was Born With That Obsession, And I've Never Seen And Do Not Know Now A Cause More Worthy, More Misunderstood, More Seemingly Hopeless And Tragically Needed.
Life
Song
Believe
Place Nothing Above The Verdict Of Your Own Mind.
Mind
Verdict
Collectivism Requires Self-sacrifice, The Subordination Of One's Interests To Those Of Others.
Sacrifice
Self
Subordination
So Long As Men Desire To Live Together, No Man May Initiate The Use Of Physical Force Against Others. . . . When A Man Attempts To Deal With Me By Force, I Answer Him By Force. It Is Only As Retaliation That Force May Be Used And Only Against The Man Who Starts Its Use. No, I Do Not Share His Evil Or Sink To His Concept Of Morality: I Merely Grant Him His Choice, Destruction, The Only Destruction He Had The Right To Choose: His Own.
Men
Long
Evil
Every Major Horror Of History Was Committed In The Name Of An Altruistic Motive. Has Any Act Of Selfishness Ever Equalled The Carnage Perpetrated By Disciples Of Altruism.
Selfish
Names
History
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
Believe
Responsibility
Men
It Is A Sin To Write This.
Writing
Sin
When I Listen To A Symphony I Love, I Don't Get From It What The Composer Got. His 'yes' Was Different From Mine. He Could Have No Concern For Mine And No Exact Conception Of It. That Answer Is Too Personal To Each Man. But In Giving Himself What He Wanted, He Gave Me A Great Experience.
Men
Symphony
Giving
Peter Keating: "do You Always Have To Have A Purpose? Do You Always Have To Be So Damn Serious? Can't You Ever Do Things Without Reason, Just Like Everybody Else? You're So Serious, So Old. Everything's Important With You. Everything's Great, Significant In Some Way, Every Minute, Even When You Keep Still. Can't You Ever Be Comfortable-and Unimportant?" | Howard Roark: "no."
Important
Purpose
Way
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.
Believe
Mind
Kind
Because, You See, God - Whatever Anyone Chooses To Call God - Is One's Highest Conception Of The Highest Possible. And Whoever Places His Highest Conception Above His Own Possibility Thinks Very Little Of Himself And His Life. It's A Rare Gift, You Know, To Feel Reverence For Your Own Life And To Want The Best, The Greatest, The Highest Possible, Here, Now, For Your Very Own. To Imagine A Heaven And Then Not To Dream Of It, But To Demand It.
Inspirational
Motivational
Dream
From The Smallest Necessity To The Highest Religious Abstraction, From The Wheel To The Skyscraper, Everything We Are And Everything We Have Comes From One Attribute Of Man - The Function Of His Reasoning Mind.
Religious
Men
Mind
There Are No Contradictions. If You Find One, Check Your Premises.
Contradiction
Checks
Premises
Happiness Is That State Of Consciousness Which Proceeds From The Achievement Of One's Values.
Happiness
Being Happy
Time
A Building Has Integrity Just Like A Man. And Just As Seldom.
Integrity
Men
Architecture
I Cannot Be Called Upon To Know A Negative Or To Prove A Negative. If There Is A God And You Prove It, That's Fine. But You Don't Tell Me You Can't Know That There Isn't. I Would Say Yes I Know There Isn't Because I Have Been Given No Evidence.
If There Is A God
Negative
Given
People Said It Because Other People Said It. They Did Not Know Why It Was Being Said And Heard Everywhere. They Did Not Give Or Ask For Reasons.
People
Giving
Reason
The Moral Justification Of Capitalism Does Not Lie In The Altruist Claim That It Represents The Best Way To Achieve 'the Common Good.' It Is True That Capitalism Does -- If That Catch-phrase Has Any Meaning -- But This Is Merely A Secondary Consequence. The Moral Justification For Capitalism Lies In The Fact That It Is The Only System Consonant With Man's Rational Nature, That It Protects Man's Survival Qua Man, And That Its Ruling Principle Is: Justice
Lying
Men
Justice
No Man Can Use His Brain To Think For Another.
Relationship
Men
Thinking
Faith Is The Wors Curse Of Mankind, As The Exact Antithesis And Enemy Of Thought.
Enemy
Religion
Mankind
Our Dearest One. Fear Nothing Of The Forest. There Is No Danger In Solitude. We Have No Need Of Our Brothers. Let Us Forget Their Good And Our Evil, Let Us Forget All Things Save That We Are Together And That There Is Joy As A Bond Between Us. Give Us Your Hand. Look Ahead. It Is Our Own World, Golden One, A Strange, Unknown World, But Our Own.
Brother
Unknown Worlds
Hands
Don't Consider Our Interests Or Desires. You Have No Duty To Anyone But Yourself.
Desire
Duty
Interest
One Must Never Fail To Pronounce Moral Judgment.
Moral
Judgment
Failing
A Government Is The Most Dangerous Threat To Man
Men
Monopoly
Bill Of Rights
There's Only One Passion In Most Artists More Violent Than Their Desire For Admiration: Their Fear Of Identifying The Nature Of Such Admiration As They Do Receive.
Passion
Artist
Desire
Trending Author
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Category
Information