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Ayn Rand Quotes and Quotations
Ayn Rand A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to
beat others. A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes
a goal which is worth achieving. A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal
monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that
happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral
integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement
of your values. Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death. 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. Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction,
check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong. Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive.
Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives. Every aspect of Western culture needs a new code of ethics - a rational ethics
- as a precondition of rebirth. Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but
no power to escape the necessity of choice. Evil requires the sanction of the victim. Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins. God... a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive. Government "help" to business is just as disastrous as government
persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity
is by keeping its hands off. Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement
of one's values. He had a big head and a face so ugly it became almost fascinating. 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 build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build. I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake
of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine. Return from Ayn Rand Quotes and Quotations to Famous People List Page Ayn Rand Quotes and Quotations - Ayn Rand Quotes and Quotations - Ayn Rand Quotes and Quotations
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