| | | The truth is not for all men but only for those who seek it. Ayn Rand
Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them. Ayn Rand
The moral is the chosen, not the forced; the understood, not the obeyed.The moral is the rational, and reason accepts no commandments. My morality, the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom: existence exists—and in a single choice: to live. The rest proceeds from these. Ayn Rand
Happiness is not to be achieved at the command of emotional whims. Happiness is not the satisfaction of whatever irrational wishes you might blindly attempt to indulge. Ayn Rand
In her philosophy, Ayn Rand debunks these common dogmas by showing that altruism, not selfishness, is evil. Nature does not provide man with automatic survival. This means that in order to live, a person must worry about their own interests.
Selfishness, however, does not mean “doing whatever you please.” Moral principles are not a matter of personal opinion — they are based in the facts of reality, in man's nature as a rational being, who must think and act successfully in order to live and be happy. Ayn Rand
Was Ayn Rand intelligent?
According to at least one “genius” listing , her estimated IQ was 160. Consider that she wrote thousand-page, best-selling fiction novels AND developed a comprehensive and consistent philosophical system covering ethics, politics, metaphysics, epistemology, and aesthetics, all in her second language. |
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