Ayn Rand Quotes About Giving

• The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”-not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form-by giving presents to one's friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .

  Ayn Rand

  Happiness, Happy, Friends

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.91, Penguin

• Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday. In spite of its religious form (giving thanks to God for a good harvest), its essential, secular meaning is a celebration of successful production. It is a producers’ holiday. The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production. Abundance is (or was and ought to be) America’s pride-just as it is the pride of American parents that their children need never know starvation.

  Ayn Rand

  Religious, Children, Holiday

• The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it.

  Ayn Rand

  Evil, Giving, World

  Ayn Rand (2005). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.1006, 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

• If you surrender everything to the government and give it total power to plan the whole economy, this will not guarantee your economic security, but it will guarantee the descent of the entire nation to a level of miserable poverty--as the practical results of every totalitarian economy, communist or fascist, have demonstrated.

  Ayn Rand

  Government, Giving, Guarantees

• So you think that money is the root of all evil? [...] Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

  Ayn Rand

  Money, Men, Thinking

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.70, Penguin

• "Judge not, that ye be not judge"... is an abdication of moral responsibility: it is a moral blank check one gives to others in exchange for a moral blank check one expects for oneself. There is no escape from the fact that men have to make choices; so long as men have to make choices, there is no escape from moral values; so long as moral values are at stake, no moral neutrality is possible. To abstain from condemning a torturer, is to become an accesory to the torture and murder of his victims. The moral principle to adopt... is: "Judge, and be prepared to be judged."

  Ayn Rand

  Fear, Responsibility, Men

• When it is established that government by right can take wealth from some and give it to others. When a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law, men will use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they have passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket.

  Ayn Rand

  Believe, Winning, Men

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

  Ayn Rand

  Humor, Men, Giving

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.240, Penguin

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

  Ayn Rand

  Giving Up, Struggle, Want

  Ayn Rand (1990). “The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought”, p.321, 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

• I say that man is entitled to his own happiness and that he must achieve it himself. But that he cannot demand that others give up their lives to make him happy.

  Ayn Rand

  Giving Up, Men, Liberty

• It does not matter that only a few in each generation will grasp and achieve the full reality of man's proper stature-and the rest will betray it. It is those few that move the world and give life its meaning-and it is those few that I have always sought to address. The rest are no concern of mine; it is not me or "The Fountainhead" that they will betray: it is their own souls.

  Ayn Rand

  Life, Courage, Betrayal

  Ayn Rand (2005). “The Fountainhead”, p.13, Penguin

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

  Ayn Rand

  New York, Sunset, Sight

  Ayn Rand (2005). “The Fountainhead”, p.423, Penguin

• Why is it immoral for you to desire, but moral for others to do so? Why is it immoral to produce a value and keep it, but moral to give it away? And if it is not moral for you to keep a value, why is it moral for others to accept it? If you are selfless and virtuous when you give it, are they not selfish and vicious when they take it?

  Ayn Rand

  Selfish, Giving, Desire

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.31, Penguin

• And questions give us no rest. We know not why our curse makes us seek we know not what, ever and ever. But we cannot resist it. It whispers to us that there are great things on this earth of ours, and that we can know them if we try, and that we must know them. We ask, why must we know, but it has no answer to give us. We must know that we may know.

  Ayn Rand

  Giving, Trying, Answers

  Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.328, Penguin

• People don't want to think. And the deeper they get into trouble, the less they want to think. But by some sort of instinct, they feel that they ought to and it makes them feel guilty. So they'll bless and follow anyone who gives them a justification for not thinking. Anyone who makes a virtue - a highly intellectual virtue - out of what they know to be their sin, their weakness and their guilt.

  Ayn Rand

  Knowledge, Blessing, Thinking

  "Atlas Shrugged". Book by Ayn Rand, Part Two: Either-Or, Chapter One: The Man who Belonged On Earth, p. 346, 1957.

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

  Ayn Rand

  Thinking, Giving, President

  Ayn Rand (1990). “The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought”, p.151, Penguin

• I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. Particularly when one can't see the details. Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need?

  Ayn Rand

  New York, Sunset, Men

  Ayn Rand (2005). “The Fountainhead”, p.423, Penguin

• 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".

• If he can give his readers no reason why they should read his book, except that the events happened to him, it is not a valid book.

  Ayn Rand

  Book, Writing, Giving

  Ayn Rand (2000). “The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers”, p.22, Penguin

• You're not sorry. You could've been here if you made the effort. But when did you ever make an effort for anybody but yourself? You're not interested in any of us or in anything we do. You think if you pay the bills, that's enough, don't you? Money! That's all you know. And all you give us is money. Have you even given us any time?

  Ayn Rand

  Time, Money, Sorry

  Ayn Rand (2005). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.45, Penguin

• 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 earth!

  Ayn Rand

  Moving, Giving, Earth

  Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.189, Penguin

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

  Ayn Rand

  Business, Character, Men

  Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.1447, Penguin

• Even in dialogue, your own style rules your selection. Do not give yourself a blank check of this kind: 'I'll merely reproduce what I think a character like so-and-so would say.' You have to reproduce it in the way your literary premises dictate.

  Ayn Rand

  Writing, Character, Thinking

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