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Time Quotes by Ayn Rand

81 Time quotes by Ayn Rand

All Time quotes Ayn Rand’s page

A woman watches a railroad and wonders why women don’t run it, a scene that sparks thoughts about breaking old rules. The quotes stress holding fast to personal principles, even when society pushes a different path. They also speak of wonder, joy as a goal, and a future built on ideas like capitalism.

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Identify the dominant philosophy of a society and you can predict its future.

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Anyone who fights for the future, lives in it today.

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“At a time like this, we can't afford the luxury of thinking!”

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That time and those people are upon you!

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Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future.

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“And suddenly, for the first time this day, we remembered that we are the damned. We remembered it, and we laughed.”

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For the first time since her return, she felt pain, a violent pain, but it made her feel alive, because it was…

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Don't rely on our knowledge of what's best for your future. We do know, but it can't be best until you know…

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“The trees had protected it from time and weather, and from men who have less pity than time and weather.”

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“Keating stood still, because he understood for the first time what it was that artists spoke about when they spoke of beauty.”

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Every form of happiness is private. Our greatest moments are personal, self-motivated, not to be touched".

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“Held motionless by wonder, she stood looking at him, taking this moment, not in the name of the present, but as a…

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“The laws say that none among men may be alone, ever and at any time, for this is the great transgression and…

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“If joy is the aim and the core of existence, she thought, and if that which has the power to give one…

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Don't think of them now. Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.…

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Do not keep silent when your own ideas and values are being attacked. If a dictatorship ever comes to this country, it…

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“The course led them to the moment when, in answer to the highest of one's values, one's spirit makes one's body become…

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“In your worst and darkest moments remember that you have seen another kind of world. Remember that you can reach it whenever…

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“It's only a matter of getting through the next few moments, she thought: take care of the next few moments, and then…

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“She was fifteen when it occurred to her for the first time that women did not run railroads and that people might…

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“Nobody can tell what the course of a country’s future may be. It is not a matter of calculable trends, but a…

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“Let anyone who believes that a high standard of living is the achievement of labor unions and government controls ask himself the…

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“Listen, kid,” the sob sister said to her, when she stood in her room for the last time, the lace of the…

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“He, too, stood looking at her for a moment--and it seemed to her that it was not a look of greeting after…

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My greatest personal mistake is ever to allow a word or moment that “doesn’t count,” i.e., that I do not refer to…

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These are the things before me. And as I stand here at the door of glory, I look behind me for the…

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“Here’s another way. This is most important. Don't allow men to be happy. Happiness is self-contained and self-sufficient. Happy men have no…

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“He waved irritably at a waiter. There was a small bar in a dark corner of the room, where an old, wizened…

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“Who is the public? What does it hold as its good? There was a time when men believed that ‘the good’ was…

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“Haven't I? - he thought. Haven't I thought of it since the first time I saw you? Haven't I thought of nothing…

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“Every form of happiness is private. Our greatest moments are personal, self-motivated, not to be touched. The things which are sacred or…

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“The people had come to witness a sensational case, to see celebrities, to get material for conversation, to be seen, to kill…

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“The world of the future. The world I want. A world of obedience and of unity. A world where the thought of…

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“Then she understood that what she needed was the motion to a purpose, no matter how small or in what form, the…

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“to cheat your way into a job bigger than your mind can handle is to become a fear-corroded ape on borrowed motions…

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“I want you, Hank. I'm much more of an animal than you think. I wanted you from the first moment I saw…

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A moment or an eternity—did it matter? Life, undefeated, existed and could exist.

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“In times like these, when their fat little comforts are threatened, you may be sure that science is the first thing men…

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“Moments later, when she saw the look of control returning to his face, she said, "Don't ever get angry at a man…

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The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time.

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More by Ayn Rand

There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.

She watched the prairies the rivers, the towns slipping past at an untouchable distance below - and she noted that the sense of detachment…

“This was reality, she thought, this sense of clear outlines, of purpose, of lightness, of hope.”

A “collective” mind does not exist. It is merely the sum of endless numbers of individual minds. If we have an endless number of…

Lobbying' is the activity of attempting to influence legislation by privately influencing the legislators. It is the result and creation of a mixed economy-of…

“She moved her hand and let it rest against his. He did not withdraw his fingers and he did not pretend indifference. She bent…

This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before.

“There was still one response, the greatest, that she had missed. She thought: To find a feeling that would hold, as their sum, as…

Inflation is not caused by the actions of private citizens, but by the government: by an artificial expansion of the money supply required to…

“We are fornicating in the sight of six billion people.”

“She was fifteen when it occurred to her for the first time that women did not run railroads and that people might object. To…

Fransisco, you're some kind of very high nobility, aren't you?" He answered, "Not yet. The reason my family has lasted for such a long…

Have you felt it too? Have you seen how your best friends love everything about you- except the things that count? And your most…

Every coercive monopoly was created by government intervention into the economy: by special privileges, such as franchises or subsidies, which closed the entry of…

We are all brothers under the skin - and I, for one, would be willing to skin humanity to prove it.