WIST Quotations

Rand, Ayn -- “The Objectivist Ethics,” University of Wisconsin Symposium on “Ethics in Our Time” (9 Feb 1961)

Dave — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 16:59:03 +0000

He is free to make the wrong choice, but not free to succeed with it. He is free to evade reality, he is free to unfocus his mind and stumble blindly down any road he pleases, but not free to avoid the abyss he refuses to see. Knowledge, for any conscious organism, is the means of survival; to a living consciousness, every “is” implies an “ought.” Man is free to choose not to be conscious, but not free to escape the penalty of unconsciousness: destruction. 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.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer, philosopher
“The Objectivist Ethics,” University of Wisconsin Symposium on “Ethics in Our Time” (9 Feb 1961)
(Source)

Possibly the source of the attributed-but-unlocated Rand quotation "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality." See also Stamp. More discussion about this quotation and related ones here.

Rand, Ayn -- Atlas Shrugged (1957)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer, philosopher
Atlas Shrugged (1957)

Rand, Ayn -- Atlas Shrugged (1957)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer, philosopher
Atlas Shrugged (1957)

Rand, Ayn -- Atlas Shrugged (1957)

Dave — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:16:37 +0000

The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide — as, I think, he will. Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips, and guns — or dollars. Take your choice — there is no other — and your time is running out.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer, philosopher
Atlas Shrugged (1957)

Rand, Ayn -- Atlas Shrugged (Francisco d’Anconia) (1957)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

So you think that money is the root of all evil? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer, philosopher
Atlas Shrugged (Francisco d’Anconia) (1957)

Rand, Ayn -- The Fountainhead [Roark] (1943)

Dave — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:14:06 +0000

The question isn’t “who is going to let me”; it’s “who is going to stop me?”

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer, philosopher
The Fountainhead [Roark] (1943)

Rand, Ayn -- The Fountainhead, ch. 18 [Roark] (1943)

Dave — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 19:32:20 +0000

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer, philosopher
The Fountainhead, ch. 18 [Roark] (1943)
(Source)

Rand, Ayn -- The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (1971)

Dave — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:48:43 +0000

There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer, philosopher
The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (1971)

Rand, Ayn -- The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (1993)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer, philosopher
The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (1993)

Rand, Ayn -- The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)

Dave — Fri, 29 Aug 2014 14:01:53 +0000

The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer, philosopher
The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)