Creation comes before distribution - or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement.
Ayn RandOnly the man who extols the purity of love devoid of desire, is capable of the depravity of a desire devoid of love.
Ayn RandI am only concerned with politics so I may see the day when I don't have to be concerned with politics.
Ayn RandThe question of whether one alleges the Superiority or Inferiority of any given race is irrelevant; racism has only one psychological root: the racist's sense of his own Inferiority.
Ayn RandWe are on strike against martyrdomโand against the moral code that demands it. We are on strike against those who believe that one man must exist for the sake of another. We are on strike against the morality of cannibals, be it practiced in body or in spirit. We will not deal with men on any terms but oursโand our terms are a moral code which holds that man is an end in himself and not the means to any end of others.
Ayn Rand