Objectivism Quotes

Objectivism Quote of the day

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

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

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.

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

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 fact that different cultures have different practices no more refutes [moral] objectivism than the fact that water flows in different directions in different places refutes the law of gravity

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

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.

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

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.

I think, therefore I'll think.

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.

If you agree with some tenets of Objectivism, but disagree with others, do not call yourself an Objectivist; give proper authorship credit for the parts you agree with

Existence is Identity, Consciousness is Identification.

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.

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

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

Romantic love is the most selfish of all emotions.

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

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

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

Man is an end in himself.

Charity must be voluntary.

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.

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..'.

The anti-mind is the anti-life.

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.

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.

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

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.

Who is John Galt?

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

Lovers tend to be philosophical, achievers are practical.

Those who make conversations impossible, make escalation inevitable.

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

Indifference to me, is the epitome of all evil.

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

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.

Pragmatism is good prevention for problems.

A painting 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.

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

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