Hi primemover50,
The following are quotes by Ayn Rand on religion and objectivism:
* Religion is a primitive form of philosophy, [the] attempt to offer a
comprehensive view of reality.
* Philosophy is the goal toward which religion was only a helplessly blind groping.
* A rational man is guided by his thinking ? by a process of Reason ?
not by his feelings and desires.
* 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.
* If I were to speak your kind of language, I would say that man's
only moral commandment is: Thou shalt think. But a 'moral commandment'
is a contradiction in terms. The moral is the chosen, not the forced;
the understood, not the obeyed. The moral is the rational, and reason
accepts no commandments.
* The three cardinal values of the Objectivist ethics ... are: Reason,
Purpose, Self-Esteem, with their three corresponding virtues:
Rationality, Productiveness, Pride.
* I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; I am
not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes
the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest
follows. This ? the supremacy of reason ? was, is and will be the
primary concern of my work, and the essence of Objectivism.
* When I say 'capitalism,' I mean a pure, uncontrolled, unregulated
laissez-faire capitalism ? with a separation of economics, in the same
way and for the same reasons as a separation of state and church.
* You have no choice about the necessity to integrate your
observations, your experiences, your knowledge into abstract ideas,
i.e., into principles. Your only choice is whether these principles
are true or false, whether they represent your conscious, rational
convictions ? or a grab-bag of notions snatched at random, whose
sources, validity, context and consequences you do not know, notions
which, more often that not, you would drop like a hot potato if you
knew.
* The objectivist ethics holds man's life as the standard of value
? and his own life as the ethical purpose of every individual man.
* There is no room for the arbitrary in any activity of man, least of
all in his method of cognition, and just as he has learned to be
guided by objective criteria in making his physical tools, so he must
be guided by objective criteria in forming his tools of cognition: his
concepts.
* What objectivity and the study of philosophy requires is not an
'open mind,' but an active mind - a mind able and eagerly willing to
examine ideas, but to examine them critically.
* Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy ... Happiness is
possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but
rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and finds his joy in
nothing but rational actions.
* An emotion as such tells you nothing about reality, beyond the fact
that something makes you feel something.
* In that world, you'll be able to rise in the morning with the spirit
you had known in your childhood: that spirit of eagerness, adventure
and certainty which comes from dealing with a rational universe.
* To love is to value. Only a rationally selfish man, a man of
self-esteem, is capable of love?because he is the only man capable of
holding firm, consistent, uncompromising, unbetrayed values. The man
who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.
* 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.
* If any part of your uncertainty, is a conflict between your heart
and your mind ? follow your mind.
* Many words have been granted me, and some are wise and some are
false, but only three are holy: 'I will it!'
* Don't rely on our knowledge of what's best for your future. We do
know, but it can't be best until you know it.
* A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action
presupposes a goal which is worth achieving.
* Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down
new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.
* Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially
good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning
mind) to decide which he wants to be.
* Just as man can't exist without his body, so no rights can exist
without the right to translate one's rights into reality ? to think,
to work and keep the results ? which means: the right of property.
* 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.
* 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 is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its
own goal. It is its own purpose.
Sources:
Working Minds: Quotations from Ayn Rand [1905-1982]
http://www.working-minds.com/ARquotes.htm
Famous Quotes and Famous Sayings: Ayn Rand
http://home.att.net/~quotesabout/aynrand.html
Ariga: Frost's Selected Quotations
http://www.ariga.com/frosties/aynrand.shtml
Think Exist
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/ayn_rand/
Many more quotes by Ayn Rand which I wasn't able to go through can be
found on the following sites:
Rational Mind
http://www.rationalmind.net/random.php?show_author=Ayn%20Rand
Zaadz
http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/authors/ayn_rand/
Freedom's Nest: Ayn Rand Quotes
http://www.freedomsnest.com/qrand.html
Search criteria:
Ayn Rand quotes religion OR objectivism
I hope this is helpful. If you have any questions regarding my answer
please don't hesitate to ask before rating it.
Best regards,
Rainbow |
