Ayn Rand Quotes About Consciousness

• Only a man of integrity can possess the virtue of honesty, since only the faking of one’s consciousness can permit the faking of existence.

  Ayn Rand

  Honesty, Integrity, Men

  Ayn Rand (1997). “Journals of Ayn Rand”, E P Dutton

• Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it-that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life-that the vilest form of self-abasement and self-destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of an authority over your brain, the acceptance of his assertions as facts, his say-so as truth, his edicts as middle-man between your consciousness and your existence.

  Ayn Rand

  Responsibility, Acceptance, Men

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.225, Penguin

• 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's consciousness controls his existence, a constant process of acquiring knowledge and shaping matter to fit one's purpose, of translating an idea into physical form, of remaking the earth in the image of one's values-that all work is creative work if done by a thinking mind.

  Ayn Rand

  Inspirational, Success, Acceptance

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.105, Penguin

• The conservatives want to rule man's consciousness; the liberals, his body.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Body, Want

  Ayn Rand (1984). “Philosophy: Who Needs It”, p.176, Penguin

• 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

• Man's basic vice, the source of all his evils, is the act of unfocusing his mind, the suspension of his consciousness, which is not blindness, but the refusal to see, not ignorance, but the refusal to know.

  Ayn Rand

  Ignorance, Men, Evil

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.23, Penguin

• The good, say the mystics of spirit, is God, a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive — a definition that invalidates man's consciousness and nullifies his concepts of existence. The good, say the mystics of muscle, is Society — a thing which they define as an organism that possesses no physical form, a super-being embodied in no one in particular and everyone in general except yourself.... The purpose of man's life, say both, is to become an abject zombie who serves a purpose he does not know, for reasons he is not to question.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Zombie, Doe

  "The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z".

• Just as man's physical existence was liberated when he grasped that 'nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed', so his consciousness will be liberated when grasps that nature, to be apprehended, must be obeyed - that the rules of cognition must be derived from the nature of existence and the nature, the identity, of his cognitive faculty.

  Ayn Rand

  Philosophy, Men, Identity

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.106, Penguin

• She sat leaning back in her chair, looking ahead, knowing that he was as aware of her as she was of him. She found pleasure in the special self-consciousness it gave her. When she crossed her legs, when she leaned on her arm against the window sill, when she brushed her hair off her forehead - every movement of her body was underscored by a feeling the unadmitted words for which were: Is he seeing it?

  Ayn Rand

  Romantic, Knowing, Hair

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.186, Hamilton Books

• One can study what exists and how consciousness functions; but one cannot analyze (or “prove”) existence as such, or consciousness as such. These are irreducible primaries. (An attempt to “prove” them is self-contradict ory: it is an attempt to “prove” existence by means of nonexistence, and consciousness by means of unconsciousness .)

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Self, Study

• There must be only three supreme values which govern a person's life: Reason, Purpose, and Self-esteem. Reason, as his only tool of knowledge--Purpose, as his choice of the happiness which that tool must proceed to achieve--Self-esteem, as his inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means: is worthy of living. These three values imply and require all of man's virtues, and all his virtues pertain to the relation of existence and consciousness: rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness, pride.

  Ayn Rand

  Honesty, Integrity, Self Esteem

• That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you call 'free will' is your mind's freedom to think or not, the only will you have, your only freedom, the choice that controls all the choices you make and determines your life and your character.

  Ayn Rand

  Character, Thinking, Choices

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.192, Penguin

• She fell asleep, lying there, her hand clasping his. Her last awareness, before she surrendered the responsibility of consciousness, was the sense of an enormous void, the void of a city and of a continent, where she would never be able to find the man whom she had no right to seek.

  Ayn Rand

  Lying, Responsibility, Men

  Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.2010, Penguin

• The ' pleasure' of being drunk is obviously the pleasure of escaping from the responsibility of Consciousness.

  Ayn Rand

  Responsibility, Escaping, Drunk

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.61, Penguin

• Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness, just as honesty is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake existence.

  Ayn Rand

  Honesty, Integrity, Fake

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.103, Penguin

• Existence is Identity, Consciousness is Identification.

  Ayn Rand

  Identity, Consciousness, Identification

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.172, Penguin

• Happiness is not something you have in your hands; it's something you carry in your heart. Happiness is one thing that multiplies by division. Happiness is that peculiar sensation you acquire when you are too busy to be miserable. Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.

  Ayn Rand

  Heart, Hands, Achievement

• Courage and confidence are practical necessities . . . courage is the practical form of being true to existence, of being true to truth, and confidence is the practical form of being true to one’s own consciousness.

  Ayn Rand

  Consciousness, Form, Existence

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.127, Penguin

• When one turns from reason to faith, when one rejects the absolutism of reality, one undercuts the absolutism of one's consciousness - and one's mind becomes an organ one cannot trust any longer. It becomes what the mystics claim it to be: a tool of distortion.

  Ayn Rand

  Reality, Mind, Absolutism

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.35, Penguin

• Faith is the commitment of one's consciousness to beliefs for which one has no sensory evidence or rational proof. A mystic is a man who treats his feelings as tools of cognition. Faith is the equation of feeling with knowledge.

  Ayn Rand

  Commitment, Feelings, Tools

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.34, Penguin

• Every dictator is a mystic, and every mystic is a potential dictator. A mystic craves obedience from men, not their agreement. He wants them to surrender their consciousness to his assertions, his edicts, his wishes, his whims - as his consciousness is surrendered to theirs. He wants to deal with men by means of faith and force - he finds no satisfaction in their consent if he must earn it by means of facts and reason.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Men, Wish

  Ayn Rand (2005). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.986, Penguin

• Francisco could do anything he undertook, he could do it better than anyone else, and he did it without effort. There was no boasting in his manner and consciousness, no thought of comparison. His attitude was not: 'I can do it better than you,' but simply: 'I can do it.' What he meant by doing was doing superlatively.

  Ayn Rand

  Attitude, Effort, Consciousness

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.71, Hamilton Books

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