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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.

-Ayn Rand

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The Secret Dread Of

Ayn Rand

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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 Only Man Never To Be Redeemed Is The Man Without Passion.

If You Want To Feel Good, Be Rational.

The Truly And Deliberately Evil Men Are A Very Small Minority; It Is The Appeaser Who Unleashes Them On Mankind.

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.

Men Prosper Or Fail, Survive Or Perish In Proportion To The Degree Of Their Rationality.

Just As There Is No Such Thing As A Collective Or Racial Mind, So There Is No Such Thing As A Collective Or Racial Achievement. There Are Only Individual Minds And Individual Achievements-an D A Culture Is Not The Anonymous Product Of Undifferentiate D Masses, But The Sum Of The Intellectual Achievements Of Individual Men.

A Genius Is A Genius, Regardless Of The Number Of Morons Who Belong To The Same Race - And A Moron Is A Moron, Regardless Of The Number Of Geniuses Who Share His Racial Origin.

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

Libertarian Party

What Greater Wealth Is There Than To Own Your Life And To Spend It On Growing? Every Living Thing Must Grow. It Can't Stand Still. It Must Grow Or Perish.

Do Not Consider Collectivists As "sincere But Deluded Idealists". The Proposal To Enslave Some Men For The Sake Of Others Is Not An Ideal; Brutality Is Not "idealistic," No Matter What Its Purpose. Do Not Ever Say That The Desire To "do Good" By Force Is A Good Motive. Neither Power-lust Nor Stupidity Are Good Motives.

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

Rationalization Is A Process Of Not Perceiving Reality, But Of Attempting To Make Reality Fit One’s Emotions.

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

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!'

I Could Die For You. But I Couldn't, And Wouldn't, Live For You.

Do Not Open Your Mouth To Tell Me That Your Mind Has Convinced You Of Your Right To Force My Mind. Force And Mind Are Opposites. Morality Ends Where A Gun Begins.

A Rational Man Is Guided By His Thinking - By A Process Of Reason - Not By His Feelings And Desires.

Compromise Now, Because You'll Have To Later, Anyway, Only Then You'll Have Gone Through Things You'll Wish You Hadn't.

I Cannot Project The Degree Of Hatred Required To Make Those Women Run Around In Crusades Against Abortion. Hatred Is What They Certainly Project, Not Love For The Embryos, Which Is A Piece Of Nonsense No One Could Experience, But Hatred, A Virulent Hatred For An Unnamed Object...their Hatred Is Directed Against Human Beings As Such, Against The Mind, Against Reason, Against Ambition, Against Success, Against Love, Against Any Value That Brings Happiness To Human Life. In Compliance With The Dishonesty That Dominates Today's Intellectual Field, They Call Themselves "pro-life".

Every Man Builds His World In His Own Image; He Has The Power To Choose, But No Power To Escape The Necessity Of Choice. If He Abdicates His Power, He Abdicates The Status Of Man, And The Grinding Chaos Of The Irrational Is What He Achieves As His Sphere Of Existence—by His Own Choice.

Why Had We Let It Go? Why Had We Both Been Condemned...to An Exile Among Dreary Strangers Who Had Made Us Give Up All Desire For Rest, For Friendship, For The Sound Of Human Voices? Could I Now Reclaim A Single Hour Spent Talking To My Brother, Philip, And Give It To Ken Daggart? Who Made It Our Duty To Accept, As The Only Reward For Our Work, The Gray Torture Of Pretending Love For Those Who Roused Nothing But Contempt?

Throughout The Centuries There Were Men Who Took First Steps, Down New Roads, Armed With Nothing But Their Own Vision.

A Man Who Seeks Escape From The Responsibility Of Supporting His Life By His Own Thought And Effort, And Wishes To Survive By Conquering, Ruling And Exploiting Others, Is Not An Individualist.

One's Own Independent Judgment Is The Means By Which One Must Choose One's Actions, But It Is Not A Moral Criterion Nor A Moral Validation; Only Reference To A Demonstrable Principle Can Validate One's Choices.

The Only Proper Purpose Of A Government Is To Protect Man's Rights, Which Means: To Protect Him From Physical Violence.

If Any Part Of Your Uncertainty, Is A Conflict Between Your Heart And Your Mind - Follow Your Mind.

Dagny, We Can Never Lose The Things We Live For. We May Have To Change Their Form At Times, If We've Made An Error, But The Purpose Remains The Same And The Forms Are Ours To Make.

There Is No Transgression Blacker Than To Do Or Think Alone.

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.

Devotion To The Truth Is The Hallmark Of Morality; There Is No Greater, Nobler, More Heroic Form Of Devotion Than The Act Of A Man Who Assumes The Responsibility Of Thinking.

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.

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.

There’s No Way To Rule Innocent Men. The Only Power Any Government Has Is The Power To Crack Down On Criminals. Well, When There Aren’t Enough Criminals, One Makes Them. One Declares So Many Things To Be A Crime That It Becomes Impossible For Me To Live Without Breaking Laws. Who Wants A Nation Of Law-abiding Citizens? What’s There In That For Anyone? But Just Pass The Kind Of Laws That Can Neither Be Observed Or Enforced Nor Objectively Interpreted - And You Create A Nation Of Law-breakers - And Then You Cash In On Guilt.

The End Does Not Justify The Means. No One's Rights Can Be Secured By The Violation Of The Rights Of Others.

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

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.

I Am Opposed To All Forms Of Control. I Am For An Absolute, Laissez-faire, Free, Unregulated Economy.

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

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.

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

[altruism] Is A Moral System Which Holds That Man Has No Right To Exist For His Own Sake, That Service To Others Is The Sole Justification Of His Existence, And That Self-sacrifice Is His Highest Moral Duty, Value And Virtue. This Is The Moral Base Of Collectivism, Of All Dictatorships.

Existence Is Identity, Consciousness Is Identification.

To Be Free, A Man Must Be Free Of His Brothers. That Is Freedom. That And Nothing Else.

You Still Love Me - Even If There's One Expression Of It That You Will Always Feel And Want, But Will Not Give Me No Longer. I'm Still What I Was, And You'll Always See It, And You'll Always Grant Me The Same Response, Even If There's A Greater One That You Grant Another Man. No Matter What You Feel For Him, It Will Not Change What You Feel For Me, And It Won't Treason To Either, Because It Comes From The Same Root, It's The Same Payment In Answer To The Same Values.

Don't Ever Get Angry At A Man For Stating The Truth.

Individual Rights Are Not Subject To A Public Vote; A Majority Has No Right To Vote Away The Rights Of A Minority.

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.

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

We Are Born Into This World Unarmed - Our Mind Is Our Only Weapon.

Love, Friendship, Respect, Admiration Are The Emotional Response Of One Man To The Virtues Of Another, The Spiritual Payment Given In Exchange For The Personal, Selfish Pleasure Which One Man Derives From The Virtues Of Another Man’s Character.

Through All The Darkness, Through All The Shame Of Which Men Are Capable, The Spirit Of Man Will Remain Alive On This Earth. It May Sleep, But It Will Awaken. It May Wear Chains, But It Will Break Through.

The Question Isn't Who Is Going To Let Me; It's Who Is Going To Stop Me.

I Agree That [marriage] Should Be Treated Like A Business Deal. But Every Business Deal Has To Have Its Own Terms And Its Own Kind Of Currency.

Civilization Does Not Have To Perish. The Brutes Are Winning Only By Default.

Altruism Does Not Mean Mere Kindness Or Generosity, But The Sacrifice Of The Best Among Men To The Worst, The Sacrifice Of Virtues To Flaws, Of Ability To Incompetence, Of Progress To Stagnation-and The Subordinating Of All Life And Of All Values To The Claims Of Anyone's Suffering.

The Virtue Involved In Helping Those One Loves Is Not 'selflessness' Or 'sacrifice,' But Integrity.

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.

He Never Felt Lonliness Except When He Was Happy.

The Degree Of A Country's Freedom Is The Degree Of Its Prosperity.

There Is No Difference Between Communism And Socialism, Except In The Means Of Achieving The Same Ultimate End: Communism Proposes To Enslave Men By Force, Socialism - By Vote. It Is Merely The Difference Between Murder And Suicide.

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.

At First, Man Was Enslaved By The Gods. But He Broke Their Chains. Then He Was Enslaved By The Kings. But He Broke Their Chains. He Was Enslaved By His Birth, By His Kin, By His Race. But He Broke Their Chains. He Declared To All His Brothers That A Man Has Rights Which Neither God Nor King Nor Other Men Can Take Away From Him, No Matter What Their Number, For His Is The Right Of Man, And There Is No Right On Earth Above This Right. And He Stood On The Threshold Of Freedom For Which The Blood Of The Centuries Behind Him Had Been Spilled.

You Are Never Called Upon To Prove A Negative. That's A Law Of Logic.

Doctors Are Not Servants Of Their Patients, They Are Traders Like Everyone Else In A Free Society And They Should Bear That Title Proudly Considering The Crucial Importance Of The Services They Offer.

Happiness Is Not To Be Achieved At The Command Of Emotional Whims.

Civilization Is The Progress Toward A Society Of Privacy. The Savage's Whole Existence Is Public, Ruled By The Laws Of His Tribe. Civilization Is The Process Of Setting Man Free From Men.

Progress Of Society

I Regret Nothing. There Have Been Things I Missed, But I Ask No Questions, Because I Have Loved It, Such As It Has Been, Even The Moments Of Emptiness, Even The Unanswered-and That I Loved It, That Is The Unanswered In My Life.

Nobody Stays Here By Faking Reality In Any Manner Whatever.

When You See Corruption Being Rewarded And Honesty Becoming A Self-sacrifice, You May Know That Your Society Is Doomed

Capitalism Is Our Only Moral System. All Other Systems Take Advantage Of Man's Rights And Liberties.

It's Such A Waste To Be Subtle And Vicious With People Who Don't Even Know That You're Being Subtle And Vicious

I'm Working To Improve My Methods, And Every Hour I Save Is An Hour Added To My Life.

Man—every Man—is An End In Himself, Not A Means To The Ends Of Others; He Must Live For His Own Sake, Neither Sacrificing Himself To Others Nor Sacrificing Others To Himself; He Must Work For His Rational Self-interest, With The Achievement Of His Own Happiness As The Highest Moral Purpose Of His Life.

They Had Rejected The Soul-body Dichotomy, With Its Two Corollaries: The Impotence Of Man's Mind And The Damnation Of This Earth; They Had Rejected The Doctrine Of Suffering As Man's Metaphysical Fate, They Proclaimed Man's Right To The Pursuit Of Happiness And Were Determined To Establish On Earth The Conditions Required For Man's Proper Existence, By The "unaided" Power Of Their Intellect.

Pursuit Of Happiness

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

Rights Are Not A Matter Of Numbers - And There Can Be No Such Thing, In Law Or In Morality, As Actions Forbidden To An Individual, But Permitted To A Mob.

We Are All Brothers Under The Skin - And I, For One, Would Be Willing To Skin Humanity To Prove It.

...if Men Are To Be Ruled, Then The Enemy Is Reason.

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.

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!

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

Honesty Is The Recognition Of The Fact That The Unreal Is Unreal And Can Have No Value, That Neither Love Nor Fame Nor Cash Is A Value If Obtained By Fraud.

Don't Think. Believe. Trust Your Heart, Not Your Brain. Don't Think. Feel. Believe.

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.

It Is Not As Late As You Think. It Is Merely Early - In The Age Of The Rebirth Of Individualism.

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

There Is Only One Source Of Authentic Self-confidence: Reason.

Self Confidence

Let Us Destroy, But Don't Let Us Pretend That We Are Commiting An Act Of Virtue.

In A Capitalist Society, All Human Relationships Are Voluntary.

Human Relations

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

Don't Rely On Our Knowledge Of What's Best For Your Future. We Do Know, But It Can't Be Best Until You Know It.

There Is A Fundamental Moral Difference Between A Man Who Sees His Self-interest In Production And A Man Who Sees It In Robbery. The Evil Of A Robber Does Not Lie In The Fact That He Pursues His Own Interests, But In What He Regards As To His Own Interest; Not In The Fact That He Pursues His Values, But In What He Chose To Value; Not In The Fact That He Wants To Live, But In The Fact That He Wants To Live On A Subhuman Level.

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 [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.

Productive Work

Man Cannot Demand That Others Give Up Their Lives To Make Him Happy.

I Love You So Much That Nothing Can Matter To Me - Not Even You...only My Love- Not Your Answer. Not Even Your Indifference

He Liked To Observe Emotions; They Were Like Red Lanterns Strung Along The Dark Unknown Of Another's Personality, Marking Vulnerable Points.

I Don't Like People Who Speak Or Think In Terms Of Gaining Anybody's Confidence. If One's Actions Are Honest, One Does Not Need The Predated Confidence Of Others, Only Their Rational Perception. The Person Who Craves A Moral Blank Check Of That Kind, Has Dishonest Intentions, Whether He Admits It To Himself Or Not.

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.

I Am. I Think. I Will.

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.

The Art Of Writing Is The Art Of Doing What You Think You're Doing. This Is Not As Simple As It Sounds. It Implies A Very Difficult Undertaking: The Necessity To Think. And It Implies The Requirement To Think Out Three Separate, Very Hard Problems: What Is It You Want To Say? How Are You Going To Say It? Have You Really Said It?

These Are The Things Before Me. And As I Stand Here At The Door Of Glory, I Look Behind Me For The Last Time. I Look Upon The History Of Men, Which I Have Learned From The Books, And I Wonder. It Was A Long Story, And The Spirit Which Moved It Was The Spirit Of Man’s Freedom. 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. This And Nothing Else.

Capitalism Is The Only System That Can Make Freedom, Individuality, And The Pursuit Of Values Possible In Practice. When I Say 'capitalism,' I Mean A Pure, Uncontrolled, Unregulated Laissez-faire Capitalism - With A Separation Of Economics, In The Same Way And For The Same Reasons As A Separation Of State And Church.

If The Humanists Wish To Be Champions Of Reason, They Should Consider The Following: Just As They Would Not Admit Mystics Into Their Camp, Since No Rational Discussion Is Possible With Men Who Substitute Supernatural Revelations For Rational Evidence-so They Cannot Admit Advocates Of Force Into Their Camp, Because No Rational Discussion Or Agreement Is Possible With Men Who Substitute Guns For Rational Persuasion.

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

Toohey: "mr. Roark, We're Alone Here. Why Don't You Tell Me What You Think Of Me? In Any Words You Wish. No One Will Hear Us." Roark: "but I Don't Think Of You.

Then No Rightful Cause Was Left, And The Pain Of Anger Was Turning Into The Shameful Pain Of Submission. He Had No Right To Condemn Anyone - He Thought - To Denounce Anything, To Fight And Die Joyously, Claiming The Sanctity Of Virtue. The Broken Promises, The Unconfessed Desires, The Betrayal, The Deceit, The Lies, The Fraud - He Was Guilty Of Them All. What Form Of Corruption Could He Scorn? Degrees Do Not Matter, He Thought; One Does Not Bargain About Inches Of Evil.

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.

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.

The Symbol Of All Relationships Among Such Men, The Moral Symbol Of Respect For Human Beings, Is The Trader. We, Who Live By Values, Not By Loot, Are Traders, Both In Matter And In Spirit. A Trader Is A Man Who Earns What He Gets And Does Not Give Or Take The Undeserved.

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.

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

The Mark Of An Honest Man... Is That He Means What He Says And Knows What He Means.

Any Material Element Or Resource Which, In Order To Become Of Use Or Value To Men, Requires The Application Of Human Knowledge And Effort, Should Be Private Property-by The Right Of Those Who Apply The Knowledge And Effort.

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.

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

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.

Since Only An Individual Man Can Possess Rights, The Expression "individual Rights"? Is A Redundancy (which One Has To Use For Purposes Of Clarification In Today's Intellectual Chaos). But The Expression "collective Rights"? Is A Contradiction In Terms.

Whenever Destroyers Appear Among Men, They Start By Destroying Money, For Money Is Men's Protection And The Base Of A Moral Existence. Destroyers Seize Gold And Leave To Its Owners A Counterfeit Pile Of Paper. This Kills All Objective Standards And Delivers Men Into The Arbitrary Power Of An Arbitrary Setter Of Values. Gold Was An Objective Value, An Equivalent Of Wealth Produced. Paper Is A Mortgage On Wealth That Does Not Exist, Backed By A Gun Aimed At Those Who Are Expected To Produce It.

The Code Of Competence Is The Only System Of Morality That's On A Gold Standard.

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.

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.

When You Have Made Evil The Means Of Survival, Do Not Expect Men To Remain Good. Do Not Expect Them To Stay Moral And Lose Their Lives For The Purpose Of Becoming The Fodder Of The Immoral. Do Not Expect Them To Produce, When Production Is Punished And Looting Rewarded. Do Not Ask, "who Is Destroying The World?" You Are.

If A Dedication Page Were To Precede The Total Of My Work, It Would Read: To The Glory Of Man.

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.

I Am Not The Means To Any End Others May Wish To Accomplish. I Am Not A Tool For Their Use. I Am Not A Servant Of Their Needs. I Am Not A Bandage For Their Wounds, I Am Not A Sacrifice On Their Altars.

Two World Wars, Three Monstrous Dictatorships-in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, Red China-plus Every Lesser Variant Of Devastating Socialist Experimentation In A Global Spread Of Brutality And Despair, Have Not Prompted Modern Intellectuals To Question Or Revise Their Dogma. They Still Think That It Is Daring, Idealistic And Unconventional To Denounce The Rich. They Still Believe That Money Is The Root Of All Evil-except Government Money, Which Is The Solution To All Problems.

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

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.

Rulers Exist Entirely Through The Persons Of Others. Their Goal Is In Their Subjects, In The Activity Of Enslaving. They Are As Dependent As The Beggar, The Social Worker And The Bandit. The Form Of Dependence Does Not Matter.

She Had Won The Battle Against Her Memories. But One Form Of Torture Remained, Untouched By The Years, The Torture Of The Word "why?

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

Within The Extent Of Your Knowledge, You Are Right.

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!

When She Had Gone Upstairs, He Walked To A Window And Stood Looking Up At The Sky. His Head Thrown Back, He Felt The Pull Of His Throat Muscles And He Wondered Whether The Peculiar Solemnity Of Looking At The Sky Comes, Not From What One Contemplates, But From That Uplift Of One's Head.

I Worship Individuals For Their Highest Possibilities As Individuals And I Loathe Humanity For Its Failure To Live Up To These Possibilities.

Statism Needs War; A Free Country Does Not. Statism Survives By Looting; A Free Country Survives By Producing.

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

If One's Actions Are Honest, One Does Not Need The Predated Confidence Of Others.

It Is Fairly Easy To Grasp Abstract Moral Principles; It Can Be Very Difficult To Apply Them To A Given Situation, Particularly When It Involves The Moral Character Of Another Person.

I Am Older Than You. Believe Me, There Is No Other Way To Live On Earth. Men Are Not Open To Truth Or Reason. They Cannot Be Reached By A Rational Argument. The Mind Is Powerless Against Them. Yet We Have To Deal With Them. If We Want To Accomplish Anything, We Have To Deceive Them Into Letting Us Accomplish It. Or Force Them. They Understand Nothing Else. We Cannot Expect Their Support For Any Endeavor Of The Intellect, For Any Goal Of The Spirit. They Are Nothing But Vicious Animals. They Are Greedy, Self-indulgent, Predatory Dollar-chasers

I Would Give The Greatest Sunset In The World For One Sight Of New York's Skyline.

Don't Ever Give Up What You Want In Life. The Struggle Is Worth It.

Art Is A Selective Re-creation Of Reality According To An Artists Metaphysical Value Judgments.

Today We Have Discovered The Word That Could Not Be Said. "i

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.

It Is A Matter Of Record That In The German Election Of 1933, The Communist Party Was Ordered By Its Leaders To Vote For The Nazis - With The Explanation That They Could Later Fight The Nazis For Power, But First They Had To Help Destroy Their Common Enemy : Capitalism And Its Parliamentary Form Of Government.

I Want It Real. I Want To Know That There Is Someone, Somewhere, Who Wants It, Too. Or Else What Is The Use Of Seeing It, And Working, And Burning Oneself For An Impossible Vision? A Spirit, Too, Needs Fuel. It Can Run Dry

This Is The Age Othe Common Man, They Tell Us-a Title Which Any Man May Claim To The Extent Osuch Distinction As He Has Managed Not To Achieve.

If You Saw Atlas, The Giant Who Holds The World On His Shoulders, If You Saw That He Stood, Blood Running Down His Chest, His Knees Buckling, His Arms Trembling But Still Trying To Hold The World Aloft With The Last Of His Strength, And The Greater His Effort The Heavier The World Bore Down Upon His Shoulders - What Would You Tell Him?" I…don't Know. What…could He Do? What Would You Tell Him?" To Shrug.

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.

Rationalization Is A Cover-up, A Process Of Providing One's Emotions With A False Identity, Of Giving Them Spurious Explanations And Justifications - In Order To Hide One's Motives, Not Just From Others, But Primarily From Oneself. The Price Of Rationalizing Is The Hampering, The Distortion, And, Ultimately, The Destruction Of One's Cognitive Faculty. Rationalization Is A Process Not Of Perceiving Reality, But Of Attempting To Make Reality Fit One's Emotions.

A Rational Man Never Distorts Or Corrupts His Own Standards And Judgment In Order To Appeal To The Irrationality, Stupidity, Or Dishonesty Of Others.

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

An Animal Is Equipped For Sustaining Its Life; Its Senses Provide It With An Automatic Code Of Action, An Automatic Knowledge Of What Is Good For It Or Evil... Man Has No Automatic Code Of Survival. His Particular Distinction From All Other Living Species Is The Necessity To Act In The Face Of Alternatives By Means Of Volitional Choice.

To Preserve One's Mind Intact Through A Modern College Education Is A Test Of Courage And Endurance, But The Battle Is Worth It And The Stakes Are The Highest Possible To Man: The Survival Of Reason.

Morality Is A Code Of Black And White. When And If Men Attempt A Compromise, It Is Obvious Which Side Will Necessarily Lose And Which Will Necessarily Profit.

Black And White

To Discuss Evil In A Manner Implying Neutrality, Is To Sanction It.

Those Who Tell You That Man Is Unable To Perceive A Reality Undistorted By His Senses, Mean That They Are Unwilling To Perceive A Reality Undistorted By Their Feelings. "things As They Are" Are Things As Perceived By Your Mind; Divorce Them From Reason And They Become "things As Perceived By Your Wishes.

The More Propaganda . . . Conservatives Spread For Capitalist Economics While At The Same Time Preaching Collectivism Morally And Philosophically , The More Nails They’ll Drive Into Capitalism’s Coffin.

The Adversary She Found Herself Forced To Fight Was Not Worth Matching Or Beating; It Was Not A Superior Ability Which She Would Have Found Honour In Challenging; It Was Ineptitude - A Grey Spread Of Cotton That Seemed Soft And Shapeless, That Could Offer No Resistance To Anything Or Anybody, Yet Managed To Be A Barrier In Her Way. She Stood, Disarmed, Before The Riddle Of What Made This Possible, She Could Find No Answer.

She Had Learned, In The Slums Of Her Childhood, That Honest People Were Never Touchy About The Matter Of Being Trusted.

Needless To Say, Under Either System [socialism Or Fascism], The Inequalities Of Income And Standard Of Living Are Greater Than Anything Possible Under A Free Economy -- And A Man's Position Is Determined, Not By His Productive Ability And Achievement, But By Political Pull And Force. Under Both Systems, Sacrifice Is Invoked As A Magic, Omnipotent Solution In Any Crisis -- And "the Public Good" Is The Altar On Which Victims Are Immolated.

Your Eyes Are As A Flame, But Our Brothers Have Neither Hope Nor Fire. Your Mouth Is Cut Of Granite, But Our Brothers Are Soft And Humble. Your Head Is High, But Our Brothers Cringe. You Walk, But Our Brothers Crawl. We Wish To Be Damned With You, Rather Than Blessed With All Our Brothers. Do As You Please With Us, But Do Not Send Us Away From You.

Capitalism Is Not The System Of The Past; It Is The System Of The Future -- If Mankind Is To Have A Future

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.

Because I Never Have Any Definite Destination. This Ship Is Not For Going To Places, But For Getting Away From Them. When I Stop At A Port, It's Only For The Sheer Pleasure Of Leaving It. I Always Think: Here's One More Place That Can't Hold Me.

If You Agree With Some Tenets Of Objectivism, But Disagree With Others, Do Not Call Yourself An Objectivist; Give Proper Authorship Credit For The Parts You Agree With

When Personal Judgment Is Inoperative (or Forbidden), Men's First Concern Is Not How To Choose, But How To Justify Their Choice

It Stands To Reason That If Sacrifices Are Being Given, Somebody Is Collecting Sacrifices.

The Man At The Top Of The Intellectual Pyramid Contributes The Most To All Those Below Him, But Gets Nothing Except His Material Payment, Receiving No Intellectual Bonus From Others To Add To The Value Of His Time. The Man At The Bottom Who, Left To Himself, Would Starve In His Hopeless Ineptitude, Contributes Nothing To Those Above Him, But Receives The Bonus Of All Of Their Brains. Such Is The Nature Of The 'competition' Between The Strong And The Weak Of The Intellect. Such Is The Pattern Of 'exploitation' For Which You Have Damned The Strong.

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.

Morality Pertains Only To The Sphere Of Man's Free Will - Only To Those Actions Which Are Open To His Choice.

Allies Never Trust Each Other, But That Doesn't Spoil Their Effectiveness.

Money Is Just A Tool. It Will Take You Anywhere You Want, But You Have To Be The Driver

A Man's Ego Is The Fountainhead Of Human Progress.

I Refuse To Accept As Guilt The Fact Of My Own Existence.

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

Gold Was An Objective Value, An Equivalent Of Wealth Produced. Paper Is A Mortgage On Wealth That Does Not Exist, Backed By A Gun Aimed At Those Who Are Expected To Produce It.

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

Paper Is A Check Drawn By Legal Looters Upon An Account Which Is Not Theirs: Upon The Virtue Of The Victims. Watch For The Day When It Bounces, Marked: 'account Overdrawn.'

Your Emotional Capacity Is An Empty Motor, And Your Values Are The Fuel With Which Your Mind Fills It. If You Choose A Mix Of Contradictions, It Will Clog Your Motor, Corrode Your Transmission And Wreck You On Your First Attempt To Move With A Machine Which You, The Driver, Have Corrupted.

Get The Hell Out Of My Way!

Congress Shall Make No Law Abridging The Freedom Of Production And Trade.

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

Evil Requires The Sanction Of The Victim.

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

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.

She Did Not Know What It Was About Him That Had Always Made Her Want To See Him Broken.

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

I Can Say-not As A Patriotic Bromide, But With Full Knowledge Of The Necessary Metaphysical, Epistemological , Ethical, Political And Esthetic Roots-that The United States Of America Is The Greatest, The Noblest And, In Its Original Founding Principles, The Only Moral Country In The History Of The World.

Ideas, In A Free Society, Are Not A Crime- And Neither Can They Serve As The Justification Of A Crime.

The Great Creators - The Thinkers, The Artists, The Scientists, The Inventors - Stood Alone Against The Men Of Their Time. Every Great New Thought Was Opposed. Every Great New Invention Was Denounced. The First Motor Was Considered Foolish. The Airplane Was Considered Impossible... But The Men Of Unborrowed Vision Went Ahead. They Fought, They Suffered And They Paid. But They Won.

Namely, If I Am Challenging The Base Of All These Institutions, I'm Challenging The Moral Code Of Altruism. The Precept That Man's Moral Duty Is To Live For Others. That Man Must Sacrifice Himself To Others. Which Is The Present Day Morality.

Men Have Died In Torture Chambers, On The Stake, In Concentration Camps, In Front Of Firing Squads, Rather Than Renounce Their Convictions. The Appeaser Renounces His Under The Pressure Of A Frown On A Vacant Face.

What Is Greatness? I Will Answer: It Is The Capacity To Live By The Three Fundamental Values Of John Galt: Reason, Purpose, Self-esteem.

Look, Gail." Roark Got Up, Reached Out, Tore A Thick Branch Off A Tree, Held It In Both Hands, One Fist Closed At Each End; Then, His Wrists And Knuckles Tensed Against The Resistance, He Bent The Branch Slowly Into An Arc. "now I Can Make What I Want Of It: A Bow, A Spear, A Cane, A Railing. That's The Meaning Of Life." "your Strength?" "your Work." He Tossed The Branch Aside. "the Material The Earth Offers You And What You Make Of It . . .

When A Man Declares: "there Are No Blacks And Whites [in Morality]" He Is Making A Psychological Confession, And What He Means Is: "i Am Unwilling To Be Wholly Good - And Please Don't Regard Me As Wholly Evil!"

We [entrepreneurs] Required That You Leave Us Free To Function -- Free To Think And Work As We Choose ... -- Free To Earn Our Own Profits And Make Our Own Fortunes ... Such Was The Price We Asked, Which You Chose To Reject As Too High.

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