Ayn Rand, (1905 - 1982)
Ranked #8,834 in Books, Poetry & Writing, #312,091 overall
Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged (1957)
Tells the story of Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive who struggles to keep her railroad operating while society crumbles around her. Dagny slowly comes to realize that even though she is one of the "producers", society considers her the enemy. Atlas Shrugged sold over 7 million copies.
Atlas Shrugged was made into a 2011 movie
The Fountainhead (1943)
Tells the story of Howard Rourke, an excellent architect. He would rather work in obscurity than compromise his artistic freedoms. This book sold 6 million copies.
Ayn Rand Quotes
- The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."
- "The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."
-
"Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing."
- Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead) - "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing."
-
Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong."
- Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged) - "A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims."
- "Who is John Galt?"
-
"Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it."
- Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged) - "Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death."
- Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent
- "There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil. "
Ayn Rand Trivia
- Ayn Rand was an ardent anti-communist. She had very bad experiences in the Soviet Union as she grew up.
- The original title for "Atlas Shrugged" was "the Strike". Ayn changed the title because it gave away too much of the ending.
- 3 days after its release, "Atlas Shrugged" debuted as number 6 on the New York Times best seller list.
- Ayn Rand's first job was working for Cecil B. Demille as a script proof reader on "King of Kings"
- Her book, "The Fountainhead" was rejected by 12 different publishers before being accepted in 1935
- Ayn Rand was a smoker all her life and lost a lung to cancer.
- Ayn Rand was born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 2, 1905
- The writer most admired by Ayn Rand was Victor Hugo.
- Ayn moved to the US in 1925. There she took the name of Ayn (from a Finnish writer) and Rand (a typewriter brand)
- Ayn was married to Frank O'Conner for 50 years, until he died.
- "Atlas Shrugged" contains over 645,000 words. There are 774,000 in the Bible.
"Greed is Good"
Gordon Gecko, played by Michael Douglas was the main character in a 1987 blockbuster movie "Wall Street". Although he is a negative character in the movie, he somewhat effectively articulates parts of Ayn Rand's philosophy.
YouTube
Who is John Galt?
John Galt was the mysterious protagonist in Ayn Rand's most famous work: Atlas Shrugged. "Who is John Galt" became a phrase that people uttered whenever something went wrong.
The Works by Ayn Rand
1934 Night of January 16th
1938 Anthem
1936 We the living
1943 The Fountainhead
1957 Atlas Shrugged
1961 For the New Intellectual
1964 The Virtue of Selfishness
1966 Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
1969 The Romantic Manifesto
1971 The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution
1979 Introduction to Objectivist Epistmology
1982 Philosophy: Who needs it
Other Books with Similar Themes
Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury, 1953)
Lord of the Flies (William Golding, 1954)
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley, 1932)
Animal Farm (Geroge Orwell, 1945)
1984 (George Orwell, 1949)
What is your favorite Ayn Rand work?
What is the Definition of Objectivism?
From Dictionary.com:
a. the meta-ethical doctrine that there are certain moral truths that are independent of the attitudes of any individuals.
b. the philosophical doctrine that reality is objective, and that sense data correspond with it.
From Ayn Rand:
"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."
CafePress
Latest Ayn Rand News
- Ayn Rand Revises the Sermon on the Mount
- By Robert Arend (about the author) 5 Blessed are the banksters' trust- funded sons and daughters, for they shall inherit all the Earth. 6 Blessed are they which have never known hunger and thirst, for they will be made richer.
- "How the Ayn Rand-Loving Right Is Like a Bunch of Teen Boys Gone Crazy" by ...
- by Sara Robinson at Alternet Make no mistake: all this Ayn Rand libertarian me-first-and-the-rest-of-you-go-to-hell stuff -- the there's-no-government-like-no-government theology that's now being piously intoned as Holy Received Truth by everybody, ...
- Criticizing Bain isn't attacking capitalism
- For further enlightenment on this subject we go to the Ayn Rand Institute, the right-wing think tank named after the Libertarian high priestess whose tomes like "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" are read eagerly by sophomore English majors.
- BioShock Infinite's Delay: Ayn Rand, Grand Thefts And Floating Cities
- Rand Paul, who as we know has terrible trouble with plumbing already as a result of socialist regulatory interference, should probably play this game. It really does suggest it could be worse. BioShock Infinite moves the action from the underwater city ...
Ayn Rand Photos
Other Classical Literature Lenses
by dakeas
I just love the classics - works written during the 1700's to the 1900's.
Favorite authors:
Jules Verne
HG Wells
Robert Louis Stevenson
Etc.
- 89 featured lenses
- Winner of 21 trophies!
- Top lens » What are the Best Astronomy and Space Documentaries?
Explore related pages
- Nathaniel Branden Nathaniel Branden
- Spider-Man Co-Creator Steve Ditko: Strange and Stranger Book Review Spider-Man Co-Creator Steve Ditko: Strange and Stranger Book Review
- John Galt John Galt
- Ayn Rand Gifts Ayn Rand Gifts
- We need to Think Objectively... We need to Think Objectively...
- Atlas Still Shrugs Atlas Still Shrugs
Take a Look at a Great Lens on George Orwell
Classic Literature for Kids
World War 2 Documentaries
