“Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage—the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors.”
Ayn Rand
The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z (Primary source)
The Ayn Rand Lexicon is a reference guide to the philosophy of Objectivism. Compiled from Ayn Rand’s extensive writings, it presents her views on hundreds of topics—from philosophy and politics to art and psychology—in an alphabetical, easy-to-browse format.
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“Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”
— Ayn Rand Primary source“I don’t intend to build in order to have clients. I intend to have clients in order to build.”
— Ayn Rand Primary source“Who will let you? That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?”
— Ayn Rand Primary source“Do not make the mistake of the ignorant who think that an individualist is a man who says: I’ll do as I please at everybody else’s expense. An individualist is a man who recognizes the inalienable individual rights of man—his own and those of others.
— Ayn Rand Primary source“A man is worthy of praise or blame solely on account of those actions which lie within his power to do or not to do.”
— Leonardo da Vinci Primary source“It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“I have never seen the philosopher’s stone that turns lead into gold, but I have known the pursuit of it turn a man’s gold into lead.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“The end does not justify the means. No one’s rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others.”
— Ayn Rand Primary source