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We are on strike, we, the men of the mind.We are on strike against self-immolation. We are on strike against the creed of unearned rewards and unrewar...more

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Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live--that productive work is the process by which man'...more

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The first right on earth is the right of the ego. Man’s first duty is to himself. His moral law is never to place his prime goal within the persons of...more

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I take the only desire one can really permit oneself. Freedom, Alvah, freedom.”“You call that freedom?”“To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend o...more

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Roark spoke quietly. He was the only man in the room who felt certain of his own words.

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He’s not really struggling even for material wealth, but for the second-hander’s delusion—prestige. A stamp of approval, not his own. He can find no j...more

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Notice how they’ll accept anything except a man who stands alone. They recognize him at once...There’s a special, insidious kind of hatred for him. Th...more

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It’s easier to donate a few thousands to charity and think oneself noble than to base self-respect on personal standards of personal achievement. It’s...more

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My real soul...? It’s real only when it’s independent...

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What in hell are you really made of, Howard? After all, it's only a building. It's not the combination of holy sacrament, Indian torture, and sexual e...more

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A man’s spirit is his self. That entity which is his consciousness. To think, to feel, to judge, to act are functions of the ego.

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And isn’t that the root of every despicable action? Not selfishness, but precisely the absence of a self. Look at them. The man who cheats and lies, b...more

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You’re so beautiful, Dominique. Its such a lovely accident on God’s part that there’s one person who matches inside and out.

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He knew, while he spoke, that it was useless, because his words sounded as if they were hitting a vacuum. There was no such person as Mrs. Wayne Wilmo...more

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You never wanted me to be real. You never wanted anyone to be. But you didn’t want me to show it. You wanted an act to help your act...