Barbara Branden Quotes
Ayn was startled by the fact that while everyone complained indignantely about the physical hardships created by the communists, no one seemed equally indignant about their ideology.
When — at the age of twelve — she first heard the communist slogan that man must live for the state, she knew, consciously and clearly, that this was the horror at at the root of all the other horrors taking place around her.
Her feeling was one of incredulous contempt: incredulity that such a statement could be uttered in human society, and a cold, unforgiving contempt for anyone who could accept it.
She saw, in that slogan, the vision of a hero on a sacrificial altar, immolated in the name of mediocrity — she heard the statement that the purpose of her life was not her own to choose, that her life must be given in selfless servitude to others — she saw the life of any man of intelligence, of ambition, of independence, claimed as the property of some shapeless mob.
It was the demand for sacrifice of the best among men, and for the enshrinement of the commonplace — who were granted all rights because they were commonplace — that she held as the unspeakable evil of communism. Her answer to the slogan was that nothing could be higher or more important than an individual's right to his own life, that it was a right beyond the claim of any individual or group or collective or state or the whole population of the globe.
Barbara Branden
Quotes to Explore
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Ta-Nehisi Coates
Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything.
B. F. Skinner
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Jackie Gleason
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Garry Trudeau
I don't think the woman in French 'Vogue' was an object. She was always a real woman.
Carine Roitfeld
Emigration is no longer a solution; it's a defeat. People are risking death, drowning every day, but they're knocking on doors that are not open.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
I grew up going to public school, and they were huge public schools. I went to a school that had 3,200 kids, and I had grade school classes with 40-some kids. Discipline was rigid. Most of the learning was rote. It worked.
P. J. O'Rourke
Kanga said to Roo, 'Drink up your milk first, dear, and talk afterwards.' So Roo, who was drinking his milk, tried to say that he could do both at once . . . and had to be patted on the back and dried for quite a long time afterwards.
A. A. Milne
Facts don't care about your feelings.
Ben Shapiro
The actor’s realm is that of the fleeting.
Albert Camus
The artist must learn the difference between the appearance of an object and the interpretation of this object through his medium. The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.
Auguste Rodin
To all the people that he hurt, I'm not - I can't be an apologist for David Koresh, but I feel for people that have had negative experiences at the hands of David. Let me put it that way. I think about those people, whether I agree with them on every point or not. Everyone has a right to their experience.
David Thibodeau
I was a dummy in school.
Alan Ladd
Our friendship has no other purpose, no other reason, than to show you how utterly unlike me you are.
Hermann Hesse
This partnership reflects a shared philosophy in caring for people, whether they are athletes or, in the case of Johnson & Johnson, people around the world. This global opportunity will enable Johnson & Johnson to provide enhanced health education, services and care to people around the world while expanding our reach in emerging markets and strengthening our businesses in developed areas.
Brian Perkins
And so it was I entered the broken world To trace the visionary company of love, its voice An instant in the wind. But not for long to hold each desperate choice.
Hart Crane
Ayn was startled by the fact that while everyone complained indignantely about the physical hardships created by the communists, no one seemed equally indignant about their ideology.
When — at the age of twelve — she first heard the communist slogan that man must live for the state, she knew, consciously and clearly, that this was the horror at at the root of all the other horrors taking place around her.
Her feeling was one of incredulous contempt: incredulity that such a statement could be uttered in human society, and a cold, unforgiving contempt for anyone who could accept it.
She saw, in that slogan, the vision of a hero on a sacrificial altar, immolated in the name of mediocrity — she heard the statement that the purpose of her life was not her own to choose, that her life must be given in selfless servitude to others — she saw the life of any man of intelligence, of ambition, of independence, claimed as the property of some shapeless mob.
It was the demand for sacrifice of the best among men, and for the enshrinement of the commonplace — who were granted all rights because they were commonplace — that she held as the unspeakable evil of communism. Her answer to the slogan was that nothing could be higher or more important than an individual's right to his own life, that it was a right beyond the claim of any individual or group or collective or state or the whole population of the globe.
Barbara Branden
