Andrei, did you like the opera?" "Not particularly." "Andrei, do you see what you're missing?" "I don't think I do, Kira. It's all rather silly. And useless." "Can't you enjoy things that are useless, merely because they are beautiful?" "No. But I enjoyed it." "The music?" "No. The way you listened to it.
Ayn Rand
Related Do you think I'm pretty? I think you're beautiful Beautiful? You are so beautiful, it... RICHELLE MEAD Do you think I'm pretty?” He regarded me with utter seriousness, like he always did. "I... RICHELLE MEAD what do you miss do they miss you when they're around do they support your peace R.H. SIN You should read something else." Why would he have done that to him?" I don't know," she s... NICHOLAS SPARKS To know the way, we go the way, we do the way. The way we do, the things we do... BENJAMIN HOFF I promise you I will try harder to be better. I have battled with things ... TYLER KNOTT GREGSON DON'T SAY, DO Do not say things You think I want to hear. Instead, S... SUZY KASSEM Hey You You are beautiful. You are talented. You are blessed. You a... SHANNON L. ALDER Missing you, I missed a part of me I shared with you that’s now gone. M... KAMAND KOJOURI You say I am repeating Something I have said before. I shall say it again. Shall I say it... T.S. ELIOT I felt ashamed." "But of what? Psyche, they hadn't stripped you naked or anything?" ... C.S. LEWIS I'm sorry,' said the shopkeeper. 'I can't understand your ridiculous accent.' 'My accent?' DEREK LANDY In youth, it was a way I had, To do my best to please. And change, with every passing lad<... DOROTHY PARKER Q: But what do you think that the Bible, itself, says? Don't you know how it was arrived at? A:... SCOPES TRIAL COMEDIAN: [...] What is it you do for a living? HECKLER: I mind my own business. J. ROSS CLARA I think of you often and make no outward show, But what it means to lose you, no one will ... ANON. Well, Son, I tell you, life for me aint been no crystal stair. Its been hard and bare and rough p... LANGSTON HUGHES Kira: L, do you know Gods of death love apples? L: Damn you, Kira... TSUGUMI OHBA i want to apologize to all the women i have called beautiful before i’ve called them intellig... RUPI KAUR Did you bring me a hamburger? Did I-No,Myrnin,I didn't bring you a hamburger.Bizarre.He'd neve... RACHEL CAINE I think it’s beautiful the way you sparkle when you talk about the things you lov... ATTICUS POETRY Do you want a cookie? - What? - A cookie. Like an Oreo. Do you want one? - No. -... NICHOLAS SPARKS I am dead because I lack desire, I lack desire because I think I possess, I think I posses... RENé DAUMAL Are you the new person drawn toward me? To begin with, take warning - I am surely far different... WALT WHITMAN People always ask me "Son what does it take To reach out and touch your dreams?" To t... TIM MCGRAW O woman, father says natural is beautiful so why do you redden your cheeks and blac... KAMAND KOJOURI Georgie: I feel stupid. Andrew: What are you talking about, you feel stupid? You just wal... THERESA REBECK A Friend Someone You're happy to see, Who's happy to see you. Someone You l... NANCY J. CAVANAUGH everything i know about love is that it hurts and is almost always never returned the... AVA. everything i know about love is that it hurts and is almost always never returned the... AVA No one deserves you like I do.” … “No one sees you like I do.” … “No one under... COLLEEN HOOVER You are the patient one, Mademoiselle,' said Poirot to Miss Debenham. She shrugged her sh... AGATHA CHRISTIE And you're blind?" Uh-huh," Iggy said, trying to sound bored. Were you born that way?" JAMES PATTERSON Ansel: Is it on? John: It is on. Shailene: Ansel paints miniatures. JOHN GREEN It’s sarcasm, Josh.” “Sarcasm?” “It’s from the Greek, sarkasmos. T... CHRISTOPHER MOORE No sight so sad as that of a naughty child," he began, "especially a naughty little girl. Do you kno... CHARLOTTE BRONTë 6 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, and I still don’t know which month it was then or what day it... CHARLOTTE ERIKSSON I Like For You To Be Still I like for you to be still It is as though you are... PABLO NERUDA I want to write something so simply about love or about pain that even ... MARY OLIVER No matter how close, you are always too far My eyes are drawn everywhere you are. I... CORA CARMACK ...what happens when you return and find nothing but a hollowed shell, shingles and f... KELLIE ELMORE What are you doing?" Damen's breath was shaky. "What am I doing? You are not very C.S. PACAT did you think i was a city big enough for a weekend getaway i am the town surrounding it RUPI KAUR More than nakedness, for there is no cover to take. The fire in your eyes is ringed w... DONNA GODDARD The ugly parts of love can’t lift you up. They bring you D O W N. Th... COLLEEN HOOVER Like threads of silver seen through crystal beads Let love through good deeds show. Character consists of what you do on the third and forth tries. My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed - my dea... The most wasted day of all is that in which we have not laughed. This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours ... Reality isn't what it used to be. ...all life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those... You have dreamed too well, O wise archdreamer, for you have drawn dream's gods away from the world o... The most merciful thing in the world . . . is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its c... That which is static and repetitive is boring. That which is dynamic and random is confusing. In bet... Close scrutiny will show that most "crisis situations" are opportunities to either advance, or stay ... Study the situation thoroughly, go over in your imagination the various courses of action possible t... The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bend... I always turn to the sports pages first, which record people's accomplishments. The front page has n... You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal. Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith. Henry James chews more than he bites off. The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life... I like children. If they're properly cooked. I like to keep a bottle of stimulant handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy. There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its s... Those who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize. No doubt Jack the Ripper excused himself on the grounds that it was human nature. One loses all the time which he might employ to better purpose. Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being. Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains. If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning. Awards are merely the badges of mediocrity. It is sometimes expedient to forget who we are. Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence. Many people seem to think that opportunity means a chance to get money without earning it. Many of us have heard opportunity knocking at our door, but by the time we unhooked the chain, pushe... If you get up one time more than you fall, you will make it through. One thing you can give and still keep is your word. Behind every successful man there are usually a lot of unsuccessful years. Mankind's worst enemy is fear of work. Before a man can wake up and find himself famous he has to wake up and find himself. Analysis and synthesis ordinarily clarify matters for us about as much as taking a Swiss watch apart... Every success is built on the ability to do better than good enough. If the truth be known, most successes are built on a multitude of failures. The price is what you pay; the value is what you receive. The hardest work in the world is that which should have been done yesterday. An expert knows all the answers - if you ask the right questions. If someone offers to furnish a sure test, ask what the test was which made the sure test sure. Religion is meant to be bread for daily use, not cake for special occasions. Think highly of yourself, for the world takes you at your own estimate. To save time is to lengthen life. Our wisdom comes usually from our experience, and our experience comes largely from our experience. Spare minutes are the Gold-dust of time; the portions of life most fruitful in good and evil; the ga... Life is too short to be taken seriously. A good marriage winds up as a meeting of minds, which had better be pretty good to start with. A good name, like good will, is attained by many actions and may be lost by one. Some families can trace their ancestors back three hundred years, but can't tell you where their chi... If a man defrauds you one time, he is a rascal; if he does it twice, you are a fool.
More Ayn Rand
No, you do not have to live as a man; it is an act of moral choice. But you cannot live as anything ... AYN RAND Rationality is the recognition of the fact that existence exists, that nothing can alter the truth a... AYN RAND Since knowledge, thinking, and rational action are properties of the individual, since the choice to... AYN RAND There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is alw... AYN RAND I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask a... AYN RAND Why do they always teach us that it's easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline t... AYN RAND Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing. AYN RAND I love you so much that nothing can matter to me - not even you...Only my love- not your answer. Not... AYN RAND Fransisco, you're some kind of very high nobility, aren't you?" He answered, "Not yet. The reason my... AYN RAND It's easy to run to others. It's so hard to stand on one's own record. You can fake virtue for an au... AYN RAND This is the difference between my morality and hedonism. The standard is not: that is good which giv... AYN RAND To deal with men by force is as impractical as to deal with nature by persuasion. AYN RAND All public interest legislation (and any distribution of money taken by force from some men for the ... AYN RAND If you agree with some tenets of Objectivism, but disagree with others, do not call yourself an Obje... AYN RAND I don't build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build. AYN RAND When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will lear... AYN RAND From the smallest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, ... AYN RAND "Mediocrity" doesn't mean average intelligence, it means an average intelligence that resents and en... AYN RAND Love is the expression of one's values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities you... AYN RAND The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't e... AYN RAND It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrass... AYN RAND Guilt is a rope that wears thin. AYN RAND Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness, just as honesty is... AYN RAND A house can have integrity, just like a person,' said Roark, 'and just as seldom. AYN RAND Thousands of years ago the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burnt at the stake... AYN RAND Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. AYN RAND To say 'I love you' one must first be able to say the 'I.' AYN RAND I don't build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build. AYN RAND He had always wanted to write Music and he could give no other identity to the thing he sought. If y... AYN RAND Degrees of ability vary, but the basic principle remains the same: the degree of a man's independenc... AYN RAND Envy is the only name she could find for the monstrous thing she faced, but it was much worse... AYN RAND We are all brothers under the skin - and I, for one, would be willing to skin humanity to prove it. AYN RAND Now I don’t see anything evil in a desire to make money. But money is only a means to some end. If... AYN RAND She knew that even pain can be confessed, but to confess happiness is to stand naked, delivered to t... AYN RAND I love you, Dominique. As selfishly as the fact that I exist. As selfishly as my lungs breathe air. ... AYN RAND He despised causeless affection, just as he despised unearned wealth. They professed to love him for... AYN RAND Self respect is something that can't be killed. The worst thing is to kill a man's pretense at it. AYN RAND Do you mean to tell me that you're thinking seriously of building that way , when and if you a... AYN RAND I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. Particularly when... AYN RAND Man cannot survive except through his mind. He comes on earth unarmed. His brain is his only weapon.... AYN RAND Have you felt it too? Have you seen how your best friends love everything about you- except the thin... AYN RAND Who is John Galt? AYN RAND He is free to evade reality, he is free to unfocus his mind and stumble blindly down any road he ple... AYN RAND Learn to distinguish the difference between errors of knowledge and breaches of morality. An error o... AYN RAND Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life. AYN RAND The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and ... AYN RAND He did not smile at his employees, he did not take them out for drinks, he never inquired about thei... AYN RAND Aristotle may be regarded as the cultural barometer of Western history. Whenever his influence domin... AYN RAND No happy person can be quite so impervious to pain (Gail Wynand to Dominique Francon) AYN RAND Incredulity and indifference were her only reaction: incredulity, because she could not conceive of ... AYN RAND Just as man can't exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate ... AYN RAND Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reas... AYN RAND Why have you been staring at me ever since we met? Because I’m not the Gail Wynand you’d heard a... AYN RAND That, precisely, is the deadliness of second-handers. They have no concern for facts, ideas, work. T... AYN RAND The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap. AYN RAND There can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permit... AYN RAND Mister, there's nothing I've got to do except die AYN RAND Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell o... AYN RAND Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the... AYN RAND He thought of all the living species that train their young in the art of survival, the cats who tea... AYN RAND "Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is th... AYN RAND I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do I l... AYN RAND Well, I always know what I want. And when you know what you want--you go toward it. Sometimes you go... AYN RAND When you are asked to love everybody indiscriminately, that is to love people without any standard, ... AYN RAND Observe how many people evade, rationalize and drive their minds into a state of blind stupor, in dr... AYN RAND Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the ... AYN RAND But why should you care what people will say? All you have to do is please yourself. AYN RAND If you write a line of zeroes, it´s still nothing. AYN RAND Beauty is a sense of harmony. AYN RAND If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood ru... AYN RAND I understood that centuries of chains and lashes will not kill the spirit of man nor the sense of tr... AYN RAND If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject. AYN RAND The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt. AYN RAND Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins. AYN RAND Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public... AYN RAND She thought how strange it would be if she ever said 'Hello' to him. One did not greet oneself each ... AYN RAND If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. AYN RAND Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live-... AYN RAND ...Aren’t they all acting on a selfish motive—to be noticed, liked, admired?” “—by ot... AYN RAND Do you know the hallmark of a second rater? It's resentment of another man's achievement. Those touc... AYN RAND There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on... AYN RAND I could die for you. But I couldn't, and wouldn't, live for you. AYN RAND People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an ac... AYN RAND The good, say the mystics of spirit, is God, a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man'... AYN RAND A chronic lack of pleasure, of any enjoyable, rewarding or stimulating experiences, produces a slow,... AYN RAND Do not consider Collectivists as sincere but deluded idealists. The proposal to enslave some men for... AYN RAND Upper classes are a nation's past, the middle class its future. AYN RAND Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but... AYN RAND Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him a... AYN RAND People create their own questions because they are afraid to look straight. All you have to do is lo... AYN RAND Thinking men cannot be ruled. AYN RAND "Mediocrity" doesn't mean average intelligence, it means an average intelligence that resents and en... AYN RAND Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death. AYN RAND Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. AYN RAND To say "I love you" one must know first how to say the "I". AYN RAND That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you call 'free will' i... AYN RAND I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask ano... AYN RAND The upper classes are... a nation's past; the middle class is its future. AYN RAND The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone. AYN RAND Only a man of integrity can possess the virtue of honesty, since only the faking of one’s consciou... AYN RAND He, too, stood looking at her for a moment--and it seemed to her that it was not a look of greeting ... AYN RAND The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the m... AYN RAND Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law. AYN RAND Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. AYN RAND Economic power is exercised by means of a positive, by offering men a reward, an incentive, a paymen... AYN RAND Im waiting, for what, my kind of people, what kind is that, i can tell my kind of people by their fa... AYN RAND Love is an expression and assertion of self-esteem, a response to one's own values in the person of ... AYN RAND He had a big head and a face so ugly it became almost fascinating. AYN RAND When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is. AYN RAND There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is alwa... AYN RAND Every man is free to rise as far as he's able or willing, but the degree to which he thinks determin... AYN RAND Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday... The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundan... AYN RAND A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which is wor... AYN RAND ...When you have established that one alternative is good and the other is evil, there is no justifi... AYN RAND Love is the expression of one's values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities... AYN RAND 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 Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is
the man who disagr... AYN RAND The purpose of the law is not to prevent a future offense, but to punish the one actually committed AYN RAND A man's sexual choice is the result and the sum of his fundamental convictions.... He will always be... AYN RAND We are on strike, we, the men of the mind. We are on strike against self-immolation. We a... AYN RAND Listen to what is being preached today. Look at everyone around us. You've wondered why they suffer,... AYN RAND It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrif... AYN RAND When you are in love, it means that the person you love is of great personal, selfish importance to ... AYN RAND I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life. Nor to any part ... AYN RAND It was a satisfying bravery; it never aroused antagonism. AYN RAND The age of the skyscraper is gone. This is the age of the housing project. Which is always a prelude... AYN RAND It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live. AYN RAND What greater wealth is there than to own your life and to spend it on growing? Every living thing mu... AYN RAND Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your prem... AYN RAND Every aspect of Western culture needs a new code of ethics - a rational ethics - as a precondition o... AYN RAND Are you saying,” he asked slowly, “that I rose in your estimation when you found that I wanted y... AYN RAND People, he thought, were as hungry for a sight of joy as he had always been--for a moment's relief f... AYN RAND When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind—and it’s proper that he should have... AYN RAND The writer who develops a beautiful style, but has nothing to say, represents a kind of arrested est... AYN RAND To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one's thinking; to maintain a contradicti... AYN RAND People create their own questions because they are afraid to look straight. All you have to do is lo... AYN RAND Look,” said Roark evenly, and pointed at the window. “Can you see the campus and the town? Do yo... AYN RAND The statue was of a young man with a tall, gaunt body and an angular face. He held his head as if he... AYN RAND The ' pleasure' of being drunk is obviously the pleasure of escaping from the responsibility of Cons... AYN RAND The people had come to witness a sensational case, to see celebrities, to get material for conversat... AYN RAND To fear to face an issue to believe that the worst is true. --Atlas Shrugged AYN RAND He’s not really struggling even for material wealth, but for the second-hander’s delusion—pres... AYN RAND Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's be... AYN RAND A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others. AYN RAND We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free ... AYN RAND Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, t... AYN RAND Man's consciousness is his least known and most abused vital organ. Most people believe that conscio... AYN RAND The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live. AYN RAND A building has integrity just like a man. And just as seldom. AYN RAND There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist. AYN RAND That which you call your soul or spirit is your conciousness, and that which you call 'free will' is... AYN RAND ...The purpose of man's life...is to become an abject zombie who serves a purpose he does not know,... AYN RAND Reality confronts man with a great many "musts," but all of them are conditional; the formula of rea... AYN RAND Government "help" to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a gove... AYN RAND Art is too serious to be taken seriously. AYN RAND Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth, the man who would make his fortune no m... AYN RAND The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence. AYN RAND The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it. AYN RAND Love should be treated like a business deal, but every business deal has its own terms and its own c... AYN RAND She did not know the nature of her loneliness. The only words that named it were: This is not the wo... AYN RAND The right to vote is a *consequence*, not a primary cause, of a free social system -- and its value ... AYN RAND Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future. AYN RAND The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see. AYN RAND The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it. AYN RAND The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. AYN RAND Government 'help' to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only wa... AYN RAND To interpose the threat of physical destruction between a man and his perception of reality, is to n... AYN RAND Of course I need you. I go insane when I see you. You can do almost anything you wish with me. Is th... AYN RAND America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive g... AYN RAND The action required to sustain human life is primarily intellectual: everything man needs has to be ... AYN RAND I don't want to see you. I don't like you. I don't like your face. You look like an insufferable ego... AYN RAND Don't fool yourself, my dear. You're much worse than a bitch. You're a saint. Which shows why saints... AYN RAND He liked to observe emotions; they were like red lanterns strung along the dark unknown of another's... AYN RAND Just as man can't exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one'... AYN RAND The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They come to be accepted ... AYN RAND Definitions are the guardians of rationality, the first line of defense against the chaos of mental ... AYN RAND I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanctio... AYN RAND In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the n... AYN RAND A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality AYN RAND To say 'I love you' one must first be able to say the 'I.' AYN RAND Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason. AYN RAND An Individualist is a man who lives for his own sake and by his own mind; he neither sacrifices hims... AYN RAND All I mean is that a board of directors is one or two ambitious men--and a lot of ballast. I mean th... AYN RAND But you see," said Roark quietly, "I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will ... AYN RAND Now you see, Dr. Stadler, you're speaking as if this book were addressing to a thinking audience. If... AYN RAND There is no such thing as "the right to enslave".A nation can do it , just as a man can become a cri... AYN RAND The man who refuses to judge, who neither agrees nor disagrees, who declares that there are no absol... AYN RAND In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are at its worst. In th... AYN RAND Just as a concept becomes a unit when integrated with others into a wider concept, so a genus become... AYN RAND A quest for self-respect is proof of its lack AYN RAND And what, incidentally, do you think integrity is? The ability not to pick a watch out of your neigh... AYN RAND Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artists metaphysical value judgments. AYN RAND His view of the world was simple: there were the able and there were the incompetent; he was not con... AYN RAND Man’s mind is his basic tool of survival. Life is given to him, survival is not. His body is given... AYN RAND What is man? He's just a collection of chemicals with delusions of grandeur. AYN RAND I think, therefore I'll think. AYN RAND Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them. AYN RAND Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values. AYN RAND Rationalization is a process of not perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one’... AYN RAND Evil requires the sanction of the victim. AYN RAND