Posted on 07/20/2012 12:26:45 PM PDT by Kaslin
20) "Ask yourself why totalitarian dictatorships find it necessary to pour money and effort into propaganda for their own helpless, chained, gagged slaves, who have no means of protest or defense. The answer is that even the humblest peasant or the lowest savage would rise in blind rebellion, were he to realize that he is being immolated, not to some incomprehensible noble purpose, but to plain, naked human evil."
19) "The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."
18) "Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent."
17) "Man’s unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself. If a drought strikes them, animals perish — man builds irrigation canals; if a flood strikes them, animals perish — man builds dams; if a carnivorous pack attacks them animals perish — man writes the Constitution of the United States. But one does not obtain food, safety or freedom — by instinct.”
16) "And what is the state but a servant and a convenience for a large number of people, just like the electric light and the plumbing system? And wouldn't it be preposterous to claim that men must exist for their plumbing, not the plumbing for the men."
15) "Every movement that seeks to enslave a country, every dictatorship or potential dictatorship, needs some minority group as a scapegoat which it can blame for the nation's troubles and use as a justification of its own demands for dictatorial powers. In Soviet Russia, the scapegoat was the bourgeoisie; in Nazi Germany, it was the Jewish people; in America, it is the businessmen."
14) "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."
13) "Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by production."
12) "Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion — when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing — when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors — when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you — when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice — you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot."
11) "We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality."
10) "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."
9) "The right to life is the source of all rights -- and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave."
8) "An attempt to achieve the good by force is like an attempt to provide a man with a picture gallery at the price of cutting out his eyes."
7) "Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual)."
6) "The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles."
5) "The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."
4) "The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see."
3) "There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. When there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."
2) "America’s abundance was created not by public sacrifices to 'the common good,' but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America’s industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance—and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way."
1) "We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force."
Ah, this reminds me of the VAST difference between a chrony capitalist/libertarian and a Christian.
So homework is needed before "the embarrassment in public by baselessly insulting somebody" thing and everything will be okay?
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against... We’re after power and we mean it... There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.
Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.” (Atlas Shrugged 1957)
The best Ayn Rand quotes are the short ones, the long ones are good too but go right over the head of the libtards reading them.
Ayn Rand could have used some lessons in brevity.
|
You're anyone's homework? What a stupid thing to say. What are your objections? |
Fantastic Ayn Rand quotes for anyone who believes in Liberty.
btw, when you try to use big words, at least spell them right. It’s “replete” not “repleat.”
I’d like you to expound further on your “criticisms of Rand’s glaring, obvious logical weaknesses” if you wouldn’t mind.
Perhaps starting with any of these 20 quotes from her. Do you see anything wrong with the content of her quotes? Or is your post just an ad-hom on her because you don’t like her?
Bonus question: Is it possible to allow oneself to applaud someone whose message is powerful and correct even if you don’t happen to like that person personally?
They are all god.
I esp. like #1, #3, #6
What?? You are ascribing your own intentions to a great individual.
Rand championed everything she intended to champion and homosexual marriage was not among them.
They’re great, thanks!
So, in other words, you are too lazy to refute any of her observations, so you dismiss them categorically?
I really like this one because I hadn’t thought if it in those terms, so this quote provides us good ammo:
-—19) “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”
Jesse Jackson never apologized for spitting in white people’s food when he was a waiter.
That’s the only comeback I need.
You’re reducing the Son of God to a mere man?
Well, no, actually. I did so at length, and, as I said, posted them. If you want to read them, dig them up. However, I think her disciples are doing a fine job of making her look like L Ron Hubbard these days.
“Rand would have championed homosexual “marriage.”
I doubt that. Instead, I would wager that she would have championed removing the state endorsement of marriage in general.
Needs repeating. Thank you.
We each will have to decide what is better but in discussions with Obama’s enablers, I often repeat this Ayn Rand quote.
“You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.”
Rand was an athiest. That’s no secret. She was a philosopher. The basis of her philosophy was the ambition, character and spirit of the individual person. She came from communism and settled in the USA.
If you can separate her philosophy from theology in general and focus on the civics associated with government’s relationship with the individual, I think all conservatives would agree with her political positions.
Her philosophy was that righteous citizens, acting in their own best interest is in fact what is best for all citizens and society at large. She believed that by nature, the individual success spawned opportunities for others to pursue their own success. She also believed that charitable giving was something each individual was to decide and should not be compelled by either mandate or taxes. She had no pitty for the lazy person or the looters (poor entitlement class).
On same sex marriage, I’d be curious to know where she would have stood. I suspect she would have been ok with it as individuals desired it. She didn’t have a religiously based moral compass.
Since it never came up in her lifetime...prove it.
Libertarian, or even objectivist thinking doesn't logically approve of perverse couplings.
There are a number of things I don't approve of about Ayn Rand--first of all that her objectivist philosophy requires atheism.
That doesn't mean she didn't have many, MANY wise things to say about government and freedom.
I don't like some of the things Jefferson believed too, like deism, cutting apart the Gospels, or miscegenation. That doesn't take away the magnificence of his thought and accomplishments in other areas.
'nuff said.
Peace out, all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.