Ayn Rand Quotes About Achievement

• There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism - by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.

  Ayn Rand

  Suicide, Mean, Men

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.466, Penguin

• A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

  Ayn Rand

  Motivational, Dance, Teamwork

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.99, Penguin

• Man—every man—is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life.

  Ayn Rand

  Inspirational, Mean, Sacrifice

  Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.2419, Penguin

• America’s founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Nothing more-and nothing less. The rest-everything that America achieved, everything she became, everything 'noble and just,' and heroic, and great, and unprecedented in human history-was the logical consequence of fidelity to that one principle.

  Ayn Rand

  Rights, Usa, America

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.37, Penguin

• My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.

  Ayn Rand

  Life, Philosophy, Men

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.351, Penguin

• A man's sexual choice is the result and the sum of his fundamental convictions.... He will always be attracted to the woman who reflects his deepest vision of himself, the woman whose surrender permits him to experience a sense of self-esteem. The man who is proudly certain of his own value, will want the highest type of woman he can find, the woman he admires, the strongest, the hardest to conquer--because only the possession of a heroine will give him the sense of an achievement.

  Ayn Rand

  Self Esteem, Men, Giving

• Capitalism demands the best of every man - his rationality - and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him.

  Ayn Rand

  Ambition, Men, Liberty

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.21, Penguin

• Fight for the value of your person. Fight for the virtue of your pride. Fight for the essence of that which is man: for his sovereign rational mind. Fight with the radiant certainty and the absolute rectitude of knowing that yours is the Morality of Life and that yours is the battle for any achievement, any value, any grandeur, any goodness, any joy that has ever existed on this earth

  Ayn Rand

  Fighting, Pride, Men

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.817, Hamilton Books

• Every man builds his world in his own image; he has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice. If he abdicates his power, he abdicates the status of man, and the grinding chaos of the irrational is what he achieves as his sphere of existence—by his own choice.

  Ayn Rand

  Power, Men, Escaping

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.604, Hamilton Books

• Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.

  Ayn Rand

  Happiness, Being Happy, Time

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.213, Penguin

• 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.

  Ayn Rand

  Inspirational, Happiness, Loyalty

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.146, Penguin

• Needless to say, under either system [socialism or fascism], the inequalities of income and standard of living are greater than anything possible under a free economy -- and a man's position is determined, not by his productive ability and achievement, but by political pull and force. Under both systems, sacrifice is invoked as a magic, omnipotent solution in any crisis -- and "the public good" is the altar on which victims are immolated.

  Ayn Rand

  Sacrifice, Men, Political

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.175, Penguin

• You seek escape from pain. We seek the achievement of happiness. You exist for the sake of avoiding punishment. We exist for the sake of earning rewards. Threats will not make us function; fear is not our incentive. It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live

  Ayn Rand

  Life, Happiness, Death

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.109, Penguin

• It's true that there's no such thing as free will. We can't help what we are or what we do. It's not our fault. Nobody's to blame for anything. It's all in your background ... and your glands. If you're good, that's no achievement of yours - you were lucky in your glands. If you're rotten, nobody should punish you - you were unlucky, that's all.

  Ayn Rand

  Achievement, Lucky, Rotten

  Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.551, Penguin

• Not selfishness, but precisely the absence of a self. Look at them. The man who cheats and lies, but preserves a respectable front. He knows himself to be dishonest, but others think he’s honest and he derives his self-respect from that, second-hand. The man who takes credit for an achievement which is not his own. He knows himself to be mediocre, but he’s great in the eyes of others.

  Ayn Rand

  Lying, Eye, Men

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.441, Penguin

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

  Ayn Rand

  Giving, Achievement, Fountainhead

  Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.399, Penguin

• Poverty is not a mortgage on the labor of others-misfortu ne is not a mortgage on achievement-fai lure is not a mortgage on success-sufferi ng is not a claim check, and its relief is not the goal of existence-man is not a sacrificial animal on anyone’s altar nor for anyone’s cause-life is not one huge hospital.

  Ayn Rand

  Animal, Men, Goal

• Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire.

  Ayn Rand

  Loneliness, Achievement, Mind

  Ayn Rand (2005). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.348, Penguin

• A culture is not the anonymous product of undifferentiate d masses, but the sum of the intellectual achievements of individual men.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Intellectual, Culture

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.130, Penguin

• My pride and my power of vision were all that I owned when I started - and whatever I achieved, was achieved by means of them. Both are greater now. Now I have the knowledge of the superlative value I had missed: of my right to be proud of my vision. The rest is mine to reach.

  Ayn Rand

  Knowledge, Mean, Pride

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.657, Hamilton Books

• Don't help me or serve me, but let me see it once, because I need it. Don't work for my happiness, my brothers — show me yours — show me that it is possible — show me your achievement — and the knowledge will give me courage for mine.

  Ayn Rand

  Happiness, Courage, Brother

  "The Fountainhead".

• She looked at the crowd and she felt simultaneously astonishment that they should stare at her when this event was so personally her own that no communication about it was possible and a sense of fitness that they should be here that they should want to see it. Because the sight of an achievement was the greatest gift a human being could offer to others.

  Ayn Rand

  Communication, Sight, Achievement

  Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.176, Penguin

• Do you know the hallmark of the second-rater? It's resentment of another man's achievement.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Envy, Hallmark

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.274, Hamilton Books

• Since a rational man's ambition is unlimited, since his pursuit and achievement of values is a life-long process — and the higher the values, the harder the struggle — he needs a moment, an hour or some period of time in which he can experience the sense of his completed task, the sense of living in a universe where his values have been successfully achieved.

  Ayn Rand

  Life, Moving, Struggle

  "The Objectivist".

• Creation comes before distribution - or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Liberty, Needs

  Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.74, Penguin

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