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.
More from Ayn Rand
All quotes βThe difference between animals and humans is that animals change themselves for the environment, but humans change the environment for themselves.
Ayn RandRead
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.
Ayn RandRead
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.
Ayn RandRead
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.
Ayn RandRead
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.
Ayn RandRead
Similar quotes
I do not believe that all books will or should migrate onto screens: as Douglas Adams once pointed out to me, more than 20 years before the Kindle turned up, a physical book is like a shark. Sharks are old: there were sharks in the ocean before the dinosaurs. And the reason there are still sharks around is that sharks are better at being sharks than anything else is.
Neil GaimanRead
It is as impossible for man to demonstrate the existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle.
Frederick BuechnerRead
Should at that moment the full moon Step forth upon the hill, And memories hard to bear at noon, By moonlight harder still, Form in the shadows of the trees, - Things that you could not spare And live, or so you thought, yet these All gone, and you still there, A man no longer what he was, Not yet the thing he planned.
Edna St. Vincent MillayRead
Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens.
William BeveridgeRead
The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.
Douglas AdamsRead
Despite the obvious emphasis of Scripture (in regard to suffering), we are bombarded by suggestions that the 'successful' Christian living takes place in the realm of constant victory, health, wholeness, and financial prosperity. In response to this we are not to pretend that suffering doesnβt exist or that it might be instantly cured. Such notions are the product of empty heads and closed Bibles.
Alistair BeggRead