Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Randwas a Russian-born American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism. Educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. She had a play produced on Broadway in 1935–1936. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful in America, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth2 February 1905
CitySaint Petersburg, Russia
CountryRussian Federation
capitalist humans human-relations
In a capitalist society, all human relationships are voluntary.
actions law permitted russian-writer
There can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions to an individual, but permitted to a mob.
action actions forbidden law mob permitted
There can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob
abundant fact lavish meal result reward symbol thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday... The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production.
earth men russian-writer secrets seek
The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them.
choice formula great man necessity realistic reality stands
Reality confronts man with a great many "musts," but all of them are conditional; the formula of realistic necessity is: "You must, if " and the "if" stands for man's choice
average envies intelligence mean means
Mediocrity" doesn't mean average intelligence, it means an average intelligence that resents and envies its betters
die except
Mister, there's nothing I've got to do except die
containing country novels opinions picture postcards shell wayne
There was no such person as Mrs. Wayne Wilmot; there was only a shell containing the opinions of her friends, the picture postcards she had seen, the novels of country squires she had read
aspect code needs russian-writer western
Every aspect of Western culture needs a new code of ethics - a rational ethics - as a precondition of rebirth.
civilization existence free laws man process progress ruled setting society toward
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.
achieved best check desired distorted dreams estate fire hero hopeless knowledge life lonely lose man mindless name nature proper road sacrifice soul spark step swamps travels unlimited upright values vision within
In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. 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's yours.
art birds cats child convincing destroying education efforts fail feathers fly futile living men merely mother nest purpose pushing saw species spend struggle survival teach teaching tool train whose wings
He thought of all the living species that train their young in the art of survival, the cats who teach their kittens to hunt, the birds who spend such strident efforts on teaching their fledglings to fly - yet man, whose tool of survival is the mind, does not merely fail to teach a child to think, but devotes the child's education to the purpose of destroying his brain, of convincing him that thought is futile and evil, before he has started to think ... Men would shudder, he thought, if they saw a mother bird plucking the feathers from the wings of her young, then pushing him out of the nest to struggle for survival - yet that was what they did to their children.
choice choosing evil good
...When you have established that one alternative is good and the other is evil, there is no justification for the choice of a mixture. There is no justification ever for choosing any part of what you know to be evil.