“Why is it immoral for you to desire, but moral for others to do so? Why is it immoral to produce a value and keep it, but moral to give it away? And if it is not moral for you to keep a value, why is it moral for others to accept it? If you are selfless and virtuous when you give it, are they not selfish and vicious when they take it?”
Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged (Primary source)
In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand explores Objectivism, a philosophy of rational self-interest. The story follows a dystopian United States where successful innovators, led by John Galt, go on strike to protest excessive government regulation and taxation.
“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“It is better to take many injuries, than to give one.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed“If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
— Benjamin Franklin Disputed“Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source