To say 'I love you' one must first be able to say the 'I.'
Ayn RandRead
An attempt to achieve the good by force is like an attempt to provide a man with a picture gallery at the price of cutting out his eyes.
Interpretation
Forcing someone to accept a supposed 'good' can result in harm and loss of true perception.
Ayn Rand's quote suggests that imposing what one believes to be good upon others, especially through force, can lead to significant detriment, stripping individuals of their ability to truly appreciate or perceive value. The metaphor of providing a picture gallery while damaging someone's eyes highlights the irony and detrimental nature of such coercion, illustrating that genuine appreciation of goodness cannot be compelled.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about individual rights and freedoms in political debates.
To say 'I love you' one must first be able to say the 'I.'
The difference between animals and humans is that animals change themselves for the environment, but humans change the environment for themselves.
It is my eyes which see, and the sight of my eyes grants beauty to the earth. It is my ears which hear, and the hearing of my ears gives its song to the world. It is my mind which thinks, and the judgement of my mind is the only searchlight that can find the truth. It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is the only edict I must respect.
What is the basic, the essential, the crucial principle that differentiates freedom from slavery? It is the principle of voluntary action versus physical coercion or compulsion.
One method of destroying a concept is by diluting its meaning. Observe that by ascribing rights to the unborn, i.e., the nonliving, the anti-abortionists obliterate the rights of the living.
I think that when in doubt about the truth of an issue, it's safer and in better taste to select the least numerous of the adversaries.
By virtue of the way it has organized its technological base, contemporary industrial society tends to be totalitarian. For "totalitarian" is not only a terroristic political coordination of society, but also a non-terroristic economic-technical coordination which operates through the manipulation of needs by vested interests.
It's disquieting to reflect that one's dreams never symbolize one's real wishes, but always something Much Worse... If I really wanted to be passionately embraced by Peter, I should dream of dentists or gardening. I wonder what unspeakable depths of awfulness can only be expressed by the polite symbol of Peter's embraces?
You see, gentlemen, reason is an excellent thing, thereβs no disputing that, but reason is nothing but reason and satisfies only the rational side of manβs nature, while will is a manifestation of the whole life, that is, of the whole human life including reason and all the impulses. And although our life, in this manifestation of it, is often worthless, yet it is life and not simply extracting square roots.
There seem to me a great many blessings which come from true poverty and I should be sorry to be deprived of them.
Far, far below the deepest delvings of the dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things.
Where hunters and woodcutters once slept in their boots by the dying light of their thousand fires and went on, old teutonic forebears with eyes incandesced by the visionary light of a massive rapacity, wave on wave of the violent and the insane, their brains stoked with spoorless analogues of all that was, lean aryans with their abrogate Semitic chapbook reenacting the dramas and parable therein.
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