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)

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.

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part 1, ch. 5 [Symes] (1949)

Dave — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:42:01 +0000

Orthodoxy means not thinking — not needing to think. Orthdoxy is unconsciousness.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part 1, ch. 5 [Symes] (1949)

WIST Quotations

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

Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part 1, ch. 5 [Symes] (1949)