Ayn Rand and/or Atlas Shrugged Quotes to ponder

[Idaho_Cowboy]

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles. - Ayn Rand

Words to live by.

[mountaineer]

I'm currently reading "Atlas Shrugged" and figured I may as well revive this thread.

I loved this description of the press: The reporters ... had been trained to think that their job consisted of concealing from the world the nature of its events. It was their daily duty to serve as audience for some public figure who made utterances about the public good, in phrases carefully chosen to convey no meaning. It was their daily job to sling words together in any combination they pleased, so long as the words did not fall into a sequence saying something specific.

 

[Ghost Bear]

I'm currently reading "Atlas Shrugged" and figured I may as well revive this thread.

I loved this description of the press: The reporters ... had been trained to think that their job consisted of concealing from the world the nature of its events. It was their daily duty to serve as audience for some public figure who made utterances about the public good, in phrases carefully chosen to convey no meaning. It was their daily job to sling words together in any combination they pleased, so long as the words did not fall into a sequence saying something specific.

 

I've been thinking of re-reading some of it too. Lately it's been feeling to me like we're living at some point in the book (Part II? Start of Part III maybe?) as more and more systems and services that everyone takes for granted break down, and no one can quite explain why it's happening.

[mountaineer]

I'm still reading (over half way through) and, yes, the parallels to the present day are many - and disturbing.

[oldno7]

"From each according to his ability,
To each according to his need"



Twentieth Century Motors becomes these somewhat United States.
Sorry if this quote was already written, I confess not reading every page.

[oldno7]

"Now I know they didn't do it by any kind of mistake. Mistakes of this size are never made innocently.
If men fall for some vicious piece of insanity, when they have no way to make it work and no possible reason to explain their choice---It's because they
have a reason that they do not wish to tell. And we weren't so innocent either, when we voted for the plan at the first meeting.
We didn't do it just because we believed that the drippy old guff they spewed was good. We had another reason but the guff helped us to hide it from our neighbors and from ourselves.
The guff gave us a chance to pass off as virtue something that we'd be ashamed to admit otherwise.
There wasn't a man voting for it who didn't think that under a setup of this kind he'd muscle in on the profits of the men abler than himself.
There wasn't a man rich and smart enough but that he didn't think that somebody was richer and smarter, and this plan would give him a share of his betters wealth and brain. But while he was thinking he would get unearned benefits from the men above, he forgot about the men below who'd get unearned benefits too.
he forgot about all his inferiors who'd rush to drain him just as he hoped to drain his superiors."

[Bigun]

"... There's no way to rule innocent men. 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.
......just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted -- and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

- p.411,
Ayn Rand, ATLAS SHRUGGED, Signet Books, NY, 1957

[mrclose]

Today, when a concerted effort is made to obliterate this point, it cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals- that it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government- that it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen’s protection against the government.
(Ayn Rand)

[Bigun]

Today, when a concerted effort is made to obliterate this point, it cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals- that it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government- that it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen’s protection against the government.
(Ayn Rand)

Which is EXACTLY why liberals (read Commies) hate it so!

[catfish1957]

I'm still reading (over half way through) and, yes, the parallels to the present day are many - and disturbing.

Read it first in high school after my civics teacher found out I was a fan of WFB. To me then it seemed to be a dystopian far fetched  what if, if everything some how went south.  It did scare me though.

Read it again in the early '90's, and the critic in me naively thought we had enough governmental checks and balances to prevent bringing Randian vision to fruiton.

Now, I really don't want to read it at , because we are living the preclude to it unfolding. We are freakin' living the book right now.  I challenge any new reader to not going into prep mode after finishing. Once the entitlement slugs suck the life out of the host, there will be hell to pay.

[mountaineer]

I've finished Atlas Shrugged now (or, for now, as I'll probably have to read it again). As I read, a nagging thought in the back of my mind was, "Can Rand's philosophy be reconciled with my own evangelical Christianity? Or are they at odds?"

A little online search revealed this Facebook group, Ayn Rand and Christianity, and an associated website, Christian Intellectual. I joined the group and look forward to reviewing the videos and other discussions.

[oldno7]

" This Country was built on the supremacy of reason--and for one magnificent century, it redeemed the world.

It will have to do so again."

Francisco d' Anconia

[Lando Lincoln]

" This Country was built on the supremacy of reason--and for one magnificent century, it redeemed the world.

It will have to do so again."

Francisco d' Anconia

Just awesome quote. Is that from Francisco’s money speech?

[oldno7]

 No, this came much later in Galt's Gulch, talking to Dagny in Galt's home.

In my book, page 771(maybe not a good reference due to different editions but it should get close)

[Bigun]

Just awesome quote. Is that from Francisco’s money speech?

Francisco d'Anconia’s Speech on Money from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957)

[oldno7]

"The trouble with our modern world, Dr. Robert Stadler said over the radio, at the ceremonies launching the construction of the cyclo-tron, is that too many people think too much.
It is the cause of all our current fears and doubts.
An enlightened citizenry should abandon the superstitious worship of logic and the outmoded reliance on reason.
Just as laymen leave medicine to doctors and electronics to engineers, so people who are not qualified to think should leave all thinking to the experts and have faith in the experts' higher authority.
Only experts are able to understand the discoveries of modern science, which have proved that thought is an illusion and that the mind is a myth.
This age of misery is God's punishment to man for the sin of relying on his mind!"

[oldno7]

 "Your fear of death is not a love for life and will not give you the knowledge to keep it."


"Happiness is the successful state of life, pain is an agent of death"


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

[oldno7]

Here's a very complex quote--

"A is A"

[Ghost Bear]

"You have reached the blind alley of the treason you committed when you agreed that you had no right to exist. Once, you believed it was "only a compromise": you conceded it was evil to live for yourself, but moral to live for the sake of your children. Then you conceded that it was selfish to live for your children, but moral to live for your community. Then you conceded that it was selfish to live for your community, but moral to live for your country. Now, you are letting this greatest of countries be devoured by any scum from any corner of the earth, while you concede that it is selfish to live for your country and that your moral duty is to live for the globe. A man who has no right to life, has no right to values and will not keep them."
-- Atlas Shrugged, Part 3, Chapter VII, "This is John Galt Speaking"

[Bigun]

Here's a very complex quote--

"A is A"

It was, not so sure these days.

[Lando Lincoln]

I'm happy this thread has had a return, of sorts.  I just spent some time reading the many quotes and comments.  We are, I fear, in the dystopia Rand imagined. 

[DCPatriot]

"Your fear of death is not a love for life and will not give you the knowledge to keep it."


"Happiness is the successful state of life, pain is an agent of death"


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

Mortality....   

[oldno7]

Mortality....   

pg. 1014 in my book--Yes, morality.

[oldno7]

 Gotta say--as much as I appreciated the Francisco d'Anconia speech, I loathed the tiresome repetition of the John Galt speech.

[mountaineer]

We are, I fear, in the dystopia Rand imagined. 

I can't imagine anyone reading that book today and not feeling that way.