It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
- Aristotle
Archive for the 'Philosophers' Category
Splitting matter and ideas
Published by 1 year, 2 months ago in Books, Novelists and Philosophers. 0 CommentsI accepted their insults, their frauds, their extortions. I thought I could afford to ignore them — all those impotent mystics who prattle about their souls and are unable to build a roof over their heads. I thought that the world was mine, and that those jabbering incompetents were no threat to my strength. I could not understand why I kept losing every battle. I did not know that the force unleashed against me was my own. While I was busy conquering matter, I had surrendered to them the realm of the mind, of thought, of principle, of laws, of values, of morality.
- Hank Rearden, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Cherryl Brooks: There’s something I want you to know, so that there won’t be any pretending about it. I’m not going to put on the sweet relative act. I know what you’ve done to Jim and how you’ve made him miserable all his life. I’m going to protect him against you. I’ll put you in your place. I’m Mrs. Taggart. I’m the woman in this family now.
Dagny Taggart: That’s quite all right. I’m the man.
- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Pure evil: "a weak, ugly, sinful creature"
Published by 1 year, 3 months ago in Books, Novelists and Philosophers. 0 CommentsI mean, we’re only human beings, and what’s a human being? A weak, ugly, sinful creature, born that way, rotten in his bones—so humility is the one virtue he ought to practice. He ought to spend his life on his knees, begging to be forgiven for his dirty existence.
- James Taggart, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Television has done much for psychiatry
Published by 1 year, 3 months ago in Novelists and Philosophers. 1 CommentTelevision has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.
- Alfred Hitchcock
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.
- Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892, Act I
If only this wasn’t unfashionable these days…
Published by 1 year, 4 months ago in Books, Novelists and Philosophers. 0 CommentsIf any part of your uncertainty is a conflict between your heart and your mind — follow your mind.
- John Galt, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
And do the cooking, besides
Published by 1 year, 4 months ago in Books, Novelists and Philosophers. 0 CommentsI quit, because I didn’t wish to serve as the cannibals’ meal and to do the cooking, besides.
- Ellis Wyatt, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.
- Ayn Rand
When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion.
- Robert Pirsig
Pure evil: guilt as a weapon
Published by 1 year, 4 months ago in Books, Novelists and Philosophers. 0 CommentsI mean that there is no way to disarm any man, except through guilt. Through that which he himself has accepted as guilt. If a man has ever stolen a dime, you can impose on him the punishment intended for a bank robber and he will take it. He’ll bear any form of misery, he’ll feel that he deserves no better. If there’s not enough guilt in the world, we must create it. If we teach a man that it’s evil to look at spring flowers and he believes us and then does it — we’ll be able to do whatever we please with him. He won’t defend himself. He won’t feel he’s worth it. He won’t fight.
But save us from the man who lives up to his own standards. Save us from the man of clean conscience. He’s the man who’ll beat us.
- Dr. Floyd Ferris, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Sex as a selfish act
Published by 1 year, 4 months ago in Books, Novelists and Philosophers. 0 CommentsNo matter what corruption he’s taught about the virtue of selflessness, sex is the most profoundly selfish of all acts, an act which he cannot perform for any motive but his own enjoyment — just try to think of performing it in a spirit of selfless charity! — an act which is not possible in self-abasement, only in self-exaltation, only in the confidence of being desired and being worthy of desire.
- Francisco d’Anconia, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Pure evil: "for the sake of the little people"
Published by 1 year, 5 months ago in Books, Novelists and Philosophers. 0 CommentsTo hell with them! Why should we worry about them? We’ve got to run the world for the sake of the little people. It’s intelligence that’s caused all the troubles of humanity. Man’s mind is the root of all evil. This is the day of the heart. It’s the weak, the meek, the sick and the humble that must be the only objects of our concern.
Those who’re big are here to serve those who aren’t. If they refuse to do their moral duty, we’ve got to force them. There once was an Age of Reason, but we’ve progressed beyond it. This is the Age of Love.
- Eugene Lawson, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Keeping your soul
Published by 1 year, 5 months ago in Books, Novelists and Philosophers. 0 CommentsTo sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That’s what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul - would you understand why that is much harder?
- Howard Roark, The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
A true friend stabs you in the front.
- Oscar Wilde
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