In order to be in control of your life, you have to have a purpose-a productive purpose. Ayn Rand More Quotes by Ayn Rand More Quotes From Ayn Rand A majority vote is not an epistemological validation of an idea. Voting is merely a proper political device--within a strictly, constitutionall y delimited sphere of action--for choosing the practical means of implementing a society’s basic principles. But those principles are not determined by vote. Ayn Rand validation mean ideas There's nothing of any importance in life — except how well you do your work. Nothing. Only that. Whatever else you are, will come from that. It's the only measure of human value. Ayn Rand money trying people In order to live, man must act; in order to act, he must make choices; in order to make choices, he must define a code of values; in order to define a code of values, he must know what he is and where he is – i.e. he must know his own nature (including his means of knowledge) and the nature of the universe in which he acts – i.e. he needs metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, which means: philosophy. He cannot escape from this need; his only alternative is whether the philosophy guiding him is to be chosen by his mind or by chance. Ayn Rand men philosophy mean It was the greatest sensation of existence: not to trust but to know. Ayn Rand trust greatness philosophy Do not help your jailers to pretend that their jail is your natural state of existence. Ayn Rand jail natural helping You have been called selfish for the courage of acting on your own judgement and bearing sole responsibility for your own life. You have been called arrogant for your independent mind. You have been called cruel for your unyielding integrity. You have been calle anti social for the vision that made you venture upon undiscovered roads. Ayn Rand selfish independent integrity "Mediocrity" doesn't mean average intelligence, it means an average intelligence that resents and envies its betters. Ayn Rand gossip average mean Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins. Ayn Rand motherhood gun reality You'll come back, because yours is an error of knowledge, not a moral failure, not an act of surrender to evil, but only the last act of being victim to your own virtue. We'll wait for you and when you come back, you will have discovered that there need never be any conflict among your desires, nor so tragic a clash of values as the one you've borne so well. Ayn Rand errors evil knowledge Just as man can't exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one's rights into reality, to think, to work and keep the results, which means: the right of property. Ayn Rand work mean reality Indiscriminate tolerance and indiscriminate condemnation are not two opposites: they are two variants of the same evasion. Ayn Rand tolerance opposites two Honor is self-esteem made visible in action. Ayn Rand self-esteem honor action The man without a purpose is a man who drifts at the mercy of random feelings or unidentified urges and is capable of any evil, because he is totally out of control of his own life. In order to be in control of your life, you have to have a purpose-a productive purpose. Ayn Rand men life order Self-sacrifice? But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed. Ayn Rand sacrifice novelists self I cannot project the degree of hatred required to make those women run around in crusades against abortion. Hatred is what they certainly project, not love for the embryos, which is a piece of nonsense no one could experience, but hatred, a virulent hatred for an unnamed object...Their hatred is directed against human beings as such, against the mind, against reason, against ambition, against success, against love, against any value that brings happiness to human life. In compliance with the dishonesty that dominates today's intellectual field, they call themselves "pro-life". Ayn Rand pro-life ambition running The quickest way to kill the human spirit is to ask someone to do mediocre work. Ayn Rand business work way Ideas, in a free society, are not a crime- and neither can they serve as the justification of a crime. Ayn Rand justification crime ideas Capitalism has been called nationalistic - yet it is the only system that banished ethnicity, and made it possible, in the United States, for men of various, formerly antagonistic nationalities to live together in peace. Ayn Rand ethnicity together men But you see," said Roark quietly, "I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I’m only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is a matter of standards—and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one. Ayn Rand may joy years Degrees of ability vary, but the basic principle remains the same: the degree of a man's independence, initiative and personal love for his work determines his talent as a worker and his worth as a man. Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn't done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence. Ayn Rand independence principles men
