Aphorisms by Ayn Rand
1.) A building has integrity just like a man. And just as seldom.
2.) A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
3.) A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving.
4.) A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.
5.) Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.
6.) Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death.
7.) Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves – or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.
8.) Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
9.) Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.
10.) Every aspect of Western culture needs a new code of ethics – a rational ethics – as a precondition of rebirth.
A Poem that makes me think of Ayn Rand
O Rose, thou art sick!
The Invisible worm,
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of Crimson joy;
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
–William Blake
Destiny Postponed 