Ayn Rand quote that had an impact on my life

NewYork44M

One of the most signficant influences that helped me get free from the organization is the novels of Ayn Rand. I had a very long fade and at some point during my "fade" I discoverved Any Rand. I have read "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" numerous times. While I don't consider myself a part of the "cult" of Ayn Rand, I must admit that her writings helped me formulate my ultimate transformation and who I am today.

One quote that I keep going back to. Even ten years after I first read it is as follows:

"Man's motive power is his moral code. Ask yourself where ther code is leading you and what it offers you as your final goal. A viler evil than to murder a man is to sell him suicide as an act of virtue. By their own statement, it is they who need you and have nothing to offer you in return."

When I first read this quote I was overwhelmed with how this relates to the blood issue. An issue that I believed and was willing to sacrifice my life for.

Does anyone have any quotes from Ayn Rand, or others, that you keep referring back to as a source of strength or a transition point in your struggle to get out of the organization?

garybuss

There are the parents who suffer deeply and genuinely, because their son (or daughter) does not love them, and who, simultaneously, ignore, oppose or attempt to destroy everything they know of their son's convictions, values and goals, never thinking of the connection between those two facts, never making an attempt to understand their son. The world they never made and dare not challenge, has told them that children love parents automatically.
Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness ? 1961

mckay

Not Ayn Rand quotes but a few I've picked up here and there mainly from ex-mormon sources:

"It's fairly easy for an intelligent person to select the few facts that support a false idea, and to seem convincing, especially to people who are predisposed to believe the idea anyway. This assertion assumes no dishonesty or insincerity on the part of the scholar. In fact, it is a very common mistake when one is set on a particular conclusion before examining the evidence. People naturally see what they want to see, making it easy to ignore the 95% of the data that refutes the desired conclusion. It happens to the best of us."

"Human beings have what seems to be a pathological need to force their view of the world onto other people, and to marginalize them if they don't accept it"........Robert Kirby of the Salt Lake Tribune

"While testimonies of the truth may be like plants that need to be watered with constant study and prayer, beliefs in false systems of religion are also like plants, that need similar care lest the truth should sway you."

mckay

SixofNine

"It's not Ann, it's 'Ein', rhymes with fine, you moron. Now you will get hard if you have a moral bone in your body."

Ayn Rand speaking to me in the women's restroom downstairs at The Met (I just shrugged, btw)

Check_Your_Premises

I was always partial to the one She said that "in a rational world there can be no contradictions, so if you arrive at one, you must go back and Check_Your_Premises."

I also like one where she said that anytime we experience pain it is because there is something about the world we didn't understand. I don't know if I share her opinion that we have that much control over our lives, but it is a damn good quote nevertheless.

I love Ayn Rand. She really laid bare the moral failing of the Marxist paradigm with an intellectual rigorousness that I don't think has ever been matched. She was a bit off, and she did carry the myth of certainty such that she became a bit cultish. Those who disagreed with her were not wrong or of another opinion, they were simply evil.

A really cool bitch though. I wish I could have met her.

CYP

Terry

I am not the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a sacrifice on their altars. Ayn Rand

Robdar

Many of Ayn's sayings have had an impact on me. So much so that I've kept a little file on them.

I think that I like these the best today:

*Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.

**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.

***The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.

And finally, this one for Terry:

It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.

ballistic

It is not wise to coment on someone you've never heard of.

- me circa 2006

NewYork44M

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.
**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.

I also have these on my top ten list as favorites.

The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.

I don't recall this one. But, I will put it on my list. Good catch.

Robdar

I don't recall this one. But, I will put it on my list. Good catch.

Actually, I didn't catch that one. When I first started researching Ayn, I found it on a website of her quotes. Since it really hit home, I put it in my file.

I do not agree totally with her philosophy but I love her angle on some things.

Ayn Rand quote that had an impact on my life

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