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
Nobody has ever given a reason why men should be their brother's keepers.
My morality, the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom: existence exists - and in a single choice: to live.
A rational process is a moral process.
The moral is the chosen, not the forced; the understood, not the obeyed. The moral is the rational, and reason accepts no commandments.
There is only one source of authentic self-confidence: reason.
... reason accepts no commandments.
It stands to reason that if sacrifices are being given, somebody is collecting sacrifices.
A Conformist is a man who declares, "It's true because others believe it" - but an Individualist is NOT a man who declares, "It's true because I believe it." An Individual declares, "I believe it because I see in reason that it is true.
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.
...if men are to be ruled, then the enemy is reason.
I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows.
Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.
The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them.
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