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Man is the only living species that has the power to act as his own destroyer—and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.

— Ayn Rand The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)

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More quotes by Ayn Rand

“Free competition enforced by law” is a grotesque contradiction in terms.

A world where the thought of each man will not be his own, but an attempt to guess the thought of his neighbor.

Ellsworth Toohey in The Fountainhead (1943)

Today, racism is regarded as a crime if practiced by a majority—but as an inalienable right if practiced by a minority.

The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (1971)

Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.

The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)

I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey.

Anthem (1938)

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1973)

History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

James Joyce Ulysses (1922)

If we don’t care about our past we can’t have very much hope for our future.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past, — so good night!

Thomas Jefferson

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ayn Rand (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.