Ayn Rand was a Russia born American author, philosopher, playwright and intellectual. She was educated in Petrograd State University in Russia and studied history, but her passion was in literature which she pursued with great zeal. Rand arrived in the Unites States in 1925 but initially she worked as an extra in Hollywood in order to support herself while she worked on her writing and in 1934 she had her first big break with the screenplay of the film ‘Red Pawn’. However, her most important contribution to the world of literature has to be the philosophy of objectivism that placed the human being and human will above anything else. Her most famous novel ‘The Fountainhead’, published in 1943, tackled the subject at length and is regarded as one of the most influen-tial novels ever written in the English language. She followed it up with her second masterpiece ‘Atlas Shrugged’ in 1957 that explored the ideals of objectivity with even more depth. Rand is without doubt one of the most revered thinkers and philosophers of the 20th century and here are some of the finest quotes from her life and work.
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
Ayn Rand
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.
The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.
Ayn Rand
The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.
Ayn Rand
Have you felt it too? Have you seen how your best friends love everything about you- except the things that count? And your most important is nothing to them; nothing, not even a sound they can recognize.
He is free to evade reality, he is free to unfocus his mind and stumble blindly down any road he pleases, but not free to avoid the abyss he refuses to see.
Ayn Rand
Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.
My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.
Ayn Rand
The truth is not for all men but only for those who seek it.
Ayn Rand
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.
Ayn Rand
Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.
To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That's what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul - would you understand why that's much harder?
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.
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.
People create their own questions because they are afraid to look straight. All you have to do is look straight and see the road, and when you see it, don't sit looking at it - walk.
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.
Ayn Rand
Rationalization is a process of not perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one’s emotions.
Ayn Rand
Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?
One loses everything when one loses one's sense of humor.
Ayn Rand
Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be left waiting for us in our graves-or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.
Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind.
Ayn Rand
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.
Ayn Rand
Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artists metaphysical value judgments.
Ayn Rand
But you see, the measure of hell you're able to endure is the measure of your love.
Is it advisable to spread out all the conveniences of culture before people to whom a few steps up a stair to a library is a sufficient deterrent from reading?
But there are people who'll try to hurt you through the good they see in you--knowing that it's the good, needing it and punishing you for it. Don't let it break you when you discover that.
People want nothing but mirrors around them. To reflect them while they’re reflecting too ... Reflections of reflections and echoes of echoes. No beginning and no end. No center and no purpose.
Ayn Rand
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.
: To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing. )
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 the man without a purpose. )
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