To say 'I love you' one must first be able to say the 'I.'
Ayn RandRead
What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Ayn Rand challenges the notion that charity should be seen as an obligation and a key moral virtue.
In this quote, Ayn Rand articulates her critique of the belief that charity is a moral duty. She suggests that viewing charity as a primary virtue undermines individual rights and the value of self-interest, encouraging a perspective where personal choice and voluntary acts of kindness are favored over perceived obligations to give.
Themes
CharityMoral DutyVirtueIndividualismSelf-Interest
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on ethical philosophy.
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All quotes →The difference between animals and humans is that animals change themselves for the environment, but humans change the environment for themselves.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Similar quotes
My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing,' he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable 'the truth' can be.
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At the time of Galileo the Church remained much more reasonable than Galileo himself. The process against Galileo was reasonable and just.
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Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth. Thus I beg and beseech you. Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do—back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning.
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If you caught your kid raising cats in tiny boxes, forcing them to live in their own feces without clean air or sunlight, pulling their teeth and claws out with pliers to keep them from hurting each other…you’d rush him to a psychiatrist. But you support that very behavior every time you buy meat, eggs, dairy or fur.
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The need to be right can arise from a fear of being disrespected. Or it may come out of the fear of being seen as we really are: as flawed human beings who are perfectly imperfect and full of contradictions and confusions.
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The yearning to know what cannot be known, to comprehend the incomprehensible, to touch and taste the unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man. Deep calleth unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster theologians call the Fall, the soul senses its origin and longs to return to its source.
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