Objectivism Quotes

Objectivism Quote of the day

To the extent to which a man is rational, life is the premise directing his actions. To the extent to which he is irrational, the premise directing his actions is death.

Charity must be voluntary.

This, in every hour and every issue, is your basic moral choice: thinking or non-thinking, existence or non-existence, A or non-A, entity or zero.

Logic rests on the axiom that existence exists. Logic is the art of non-contradictory identification.

Existence is Identity, Consciousness is Identification.

To exist is to be something, as distinguished from the nothing of non-existence, it is to be an entity of a specific nature made of specific attributes.

By the grace of reality and the nature of life, man—every man—is an end in himself, he exists for his own sake, and the achievement of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose.

The anti-mind is the anti-life.

Man has the power to act as his own destroyer—and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.

Reason is your means of survival — so that for you, who are a human being, the question ‘to be or not to be’ is the question 'to think or not to think..'.

Man is an end in himself.

Everyone has the right to make his own decisions, but none has the right to force his decision on others.

Romantic love is the most selfish of all emotions.

Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?

One gains a profoundly personal, selfish joy from the mere existence of the person one loves. It is one’s own personal, selfish happiness that one seeks, earns and derives from love.

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.

I'm not asking you to do your best. I'm asking you to do your job." -Dagny Taggart

Who is John Galt?

I never found beauty in longing for the impossible and never found the possible to be beyond my reach.

A desire to choose the hardest might be a confession of weakness in itself.

When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you – you know your nation is doomed.

Men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.

The age of the skyscraper is gone. This is the age of the housing project. Which is always a prelude to the age of the cave.

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.

The view that man was ever to be drawn by some vision of the unattainable shining ahead, doomed ever to aspire, but not to achieve, my life and my values could not bring me to that.

I think, therefore I'll think.

And no one rose to ask the question: Good?-by what standard?John Galt

We are born into this world unarmed - our mind is our only weapon.

Let's say I have a mystical soul and a rational brain, and, like Montaigne, I am incapable of choosing between them. I don't know if I believe in God, but I am often tempted to believe.

A painting shouldn't be just a picture, it should be a philosophy.

Lovers tend to be philosophical, achievers are practical.

An invention is a responsibility of the individual, society cannot invent, it can only applaud the invention and inventor.

Pragmatism is good prevention for problems.

A photograph shouldn't be just a picture, it should be a philosophy.

Only Marxists, " Dr. Iggy concluded, opening the door to usher Joe into the chapel room, "stillbelieve in an objective history. Marxists and a few disciples of Ayn Rand.

Those who make conversations impossible, make escalation inevitable.

If you're rational you don't get to believe whatever you want to believe.

In meetings philosophy might work, on the field practicality works.

Indifference to me, is the epitome of all evil.

I have always found it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement [Libertarians] in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough.