Ayn Rand Quotes About Purpose

• 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

• What is greatness? I will answer: it is the capacity to live by the three fundamental values of John Galt: reason, purpose, self-esteem.

  Ayn Rand

  Self Esteem, Greatness, Three

  Playboy Interview, March, 1964.

• The man without a purpose is a man who drifts at the mercy of random feelings or unidentified urges and is capable of any evil, because he is totally out of control of his own life. In order to be in control of your life, you have to have a purpose-a productive purpose.

  Ayn Rand

  Life, Men, Order

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.404, Penguin

• The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.

  Ayn Rand

  Life, Happiness, Humor

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.99, Penguin

• The purpose of the law is not to prevent a future offense, but to punish the one actually committed.

  Ayn Rand

  Law, Purpose, Committed

  Ayn Rand (1995). “The Letters of Ayn Rand”, Dutton Adult

• 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

• 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

• When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, "Who is destroying the world?" You are.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Men, Evil

  Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.1448, Penguin

• Ask yourself why totalitarian dictatorships find it necessary to pour money and effort into propaganda for their own helpless, chained, gagged slaves, who have no means of protest or defense. The answer is that even the humblest peasant or the lowest savage would rise in blind rebellion, were he to realize that he is being immolated, not to some incomprehensible noble purpose, but to plain, naked human evil.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Tyrants, Evil

  Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.136, Penguin

• My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.

  Ayn Rand

  Happiness, Mean, Goal

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Anthem”, p.46, Xist Publishing

• 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

• People want nothing but mirrors around them. To reflect them while they’re reflecting too ... Reflections of reflections and echoes of echoes. No beginning and no end. No center and no purpose.

  Ayn Rand

  Reflection, Echoes, Mirrors

  Ayn Rand (1996). “The Fountainhead”, Turtleback Books

• Since only an individual man can possess rights, the expression "individual rights"? is a redundancy (which one has to use for purposes of clarification in today's intellectual chaos). But the expression "collective rights"? is a contradiction in terms.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Expression, Rights

  Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.385, Penguin

• Ethics is a code of values which guide our choices and actions and determine the purpose and course of our lives.

  Ayn Rand

  Change, Life Changing, Choices

• The source of the government's authority is “the consent of the governed.” This means that the government is not the ruler, but the servant or agent of the citizens; it means that the government as such has no rights except the rights delegated to it by the citizens for a specific purpose.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Rights, Government

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.204, Penguin

• All life is a purposeful struggle, and your only choice is the choice of a goal.

  Ayn Rand

  Inspirational, Life, Struggle

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.155, Penguin

• Do not consider Collectivists as "sincere but deluded idealists". The proposal to enslave some men for the sake of others is not an ideal; brutality is not "idealistic," no matter what its purpose. Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Stupidity, Lust

• 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".

• The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man's self-defense, and, as such, may only resort to force only against those who start the use of force.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Men, Rights

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.812, Hamilton Books

• The most depraved type of human being ... (is) the man without a purpose.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Purpose, Type

  Ayn Rand (2005). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.107, Penguin

• I know not if this earth on which I stand is the core of the universe or if it is but a speck of dust lost in eternity. I know not and I care not. For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.

  Ayn Rand

  Happiness, Being Happy, Philosophy

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Anthem”, p.46, Xist Publishing

• It is a policeman’s duty to retrieve stolen property and return it to its owners. But when robbery becomes the purpose of the law, and the policeman’s duty becomes, not protection, but the plunder of property - then it is an outlaw who has to become a policeman.

  Ayn Rand

  Law, Purpose, Return

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.443, Hamilton Books

• Peter Keating: "Do you always have to have a purpose? Do you always have to be so damn serious? Can't you ever do things without reason, just like everybody else? You're so serious, so old. Everything's important with you. Everything's great, significant in some way, every minute, even when you keep still. Can't you ever be comfortable-and unimportant?" | Howard Roark: "No."

  Ayn Rand

  Important, Purpose, Way

• The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort.

  Ayn Rand

  Education, Home, School

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.154, Penguin

• The only proper, moral purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence - to protect his right to his own life, to his own liberty, to his own property and to the pursuit of his own happiness. Without property rights, no other rights are possible.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Men, Rights

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.30, Penguin

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