Ayn Rand — "A culture is not the sum of its average, but of its best."
A culture is not the sum of its average, but of its best.
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More from Ayn Rand
"One must never sacrifice a principle for a compromise."
"I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one observes the actual requirements of man’s survival and prosperity, one …"
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About Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
Russian-American novelist (The Fountainhead, 1943; Atlas Shrugged, 1957) and Objectivist philosopher whose ethical egoism and capitalism-as-virtue shaped American libertarianism. Closely associated with Nathaniel Branden (her early Objectivist-movement collaborator and lover). For an intellectual contrast, see John Rawls, Harvard political philosopher (1921-2002) — Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971) systematized exactly the egalitarian-redistributive liberalism Rand's Atlas Shrugged was structured to attack. Rand's 'sanction of the victim' and Rawls's 'veil of ignorance' are the two opposite founding intuitions of American political philosophy — selfish-flourishing-as-virtue vs fairness-from-original-position.