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Giving Quotes by Ayn Rand

53 Giving quotes by Ayn Rand

All Giving quotes Ayn Rand’s page

Rand argues that society can give a person wealth, fame, and gratitude if they earn it. She points out the moral paradox of wanting to keep value while being praised for giving it away. She also says that showing achievement can inspire courage in others.

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“Virtue is the giving of undeserved.”

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Don't ever give up what you want in life. The struggle is worth it.

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Man cannot demand that others give up their lives to make him happy.

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If he can give his readers no reason why they should read his book, except that the events happened to him, it…

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I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline.

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She started off, walking fast, as if the speed of her steps could give form to the things she felt.

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Show me your achievement, and the knowledge will give me courage for mine.

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What do I "think" of President Reagan? The best answer to give would be: I don't think of him. And the more…

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I loathe your ideals because I know no worse injustice than the giving of the undeserved.

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Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the…

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People said it because other people said it. They did not know why it was being said and heard everywhere. they did…

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The writer who develops a beautiful style, but has nothing to say, represents a kind of arrested esthetic development; he is like…

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Don't help me or serve me, but let me see it once, because I need it. Don't work for my happiness, my…

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You have no choice about your capacity to feel that something is good for you or evil, but what you will consider…

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I say that man is entitled to his own happiness and that he must achieve it himself. But that he cannot demand…

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Roark smiled, "Gail, if this boat were sinking, I'd give my life to save you. Not because it's any kind of duty.…

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I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. Particularly when one can't see the…

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You'll get everything society can give a man. You'll keep all the money. You'll take any fame or honor anyone might want…

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Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is…

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Rationalization is a cover-up, a process of providing one's emotions with a false identity, of giving them spurious explanations and justifications -…

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If you surrender everything to the government and give it total power to plan the whole economy, this will not guarantee your…

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When it is established that government by right can take wealth from some and give it to others. When a society establishes…

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You're not sorry. You could've been here if you made the effort. But when did you ever make an effort for anybody…

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The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says:…

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People don't want to think. And the deeper they get into trouble, the less they want to think. But by some sort…

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“Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life. Redeem your mind…

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Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday. In spite of its religious form (giving thanks to God for a good harvest), its essential,…

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Can you sacrifice a few? When those few are the best? Deny the best its right to the top--and you have no…

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Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of…

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Who was it that said he needed a fulcrum? Give me an unobstructed right-of-way and I'll show them how to move the…

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A man doesn't borrow pieces of his body. A building doesn't borrow hunks of its soul. Its maker gives it the soul…

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If you agree with some tenets of Objectivism, but disagree with others, do not call yourself an Objectivist; give proper authorship credit…

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Even in dialogue, your own style rules your selection. Do not give yourself a blank check of this kind: 'I'll merely reproduce…

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The symbol of all relationships among such men, the moral symbol of respect for human beings, is the trader. We, who live…

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When I listen to a symphony I love, I don't get from it what the composer got. His 'Yes' was different from…

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Don't help me or serve me, but let me see it once, because I need it. Don't work for my happiness, my…

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It does not matter that only a few in each generation will grasp and achieve the full reality of man's proper stature-and…

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Our dearest one. Fear nothing of the forest. There is no danger in solitude. We have no need of our brothers. Let…

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Why is it immoral for you to desire, but moral for others to do so? Why is it immoral to produce a…

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Judge not, that ye be not judge"... is an abdication of moral responsibility: it is a moral blank check one gives to…

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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.