Objectivism Ayn Quotes

I do not think that tragedy is our natural fate and I do not live in chronic dread of disaster. It is no happiness, but suffering that I consider unnatural. It is not success, but calamity that I regard as the abnormal exception in Human Life. ~ Ayn Rand

Here's a free tip," his father says: "The feds aren't terribly impressed by infantile egoism. In fact, if Objectivism were at the center of human philosophical discourse rather than the fringes, we wouldn't be here - the Big Zap would have arrived decades ago. But I'm going to be generous and let you write down the ghost of Ayn Rand as a brain fart. I won't bring her up again if you don't. ~ Cory Doctorow

I hope you don't have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoevsky. ~ Flannery O'Connor

Her philosophy, Objectivism, advocates reason, individualism, and personal happiness. Conservatives are more likely to favor faith, tradition, and duty as core values. Politically, Objectivism is classically liberal or libertarian. It expresses a worldview associated with the Enlightenment. Ayn Rand fundamentally rejected the conservative-liberal distinction in culture. ~ David Kelley

True love is egoism à duex - egoism for two. ~ Ellen Kenner

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

Every honest man lives for himself. Every man worth calling a man lives for himself. The one who doesn't - doesn't live at all. ~ Ayn Rand

Romantic love is the most selfish of all emotions. ~ Ellen Kenner

It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master. ~ Ayn Rand

To irrational principles, one cannot be loyal. Ideas that are not derived from reality cannot be consistently practiced in reality.
as quoted by Leonard Peikoff in Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand ~ Ayn Rand

Indifference to me, is the epitome of all evil. ~ Elie Wiesel

Charity must be voluntary. ~ Ayn Rand

There is an irrational, cultish tendency in many intellectual movements, and Objectivism, alas, is no exception. Ayn Rand's personal obsession with loyalty did little to discourage this trend ... Rand had often protested, 'Protect me from my followers!' ~ Nathaniel Branden

Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society ... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil. ~ Gore Vidal

You want to know what's wrong with the world?" Dad paused. "It's this alienation that permeates every aspect of humanity. ~ Mark David Henderson

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

Before Ayn Rand coined the term "objectivists", we just called them "selfish assholes". ~ James Rozoff

Saint Petersburg in revolt gave us Vladimir Nabokov, Isaiah Berlin, and Ayn Rand. The first was a novelist, the second a philosopher. The third was neither but thought she was both. ~ Corey Robin