When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, butt in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.
Words are a lens to focus one's mind.
- Topic: Affirmation, Focus
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from Ayn Rand
If a businessman makes a mistake, he suffers the consequences. If a bureaucrat makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences.
Emotions are inherent in your nature, but their content is dictated by your mind.
Since men are neither omniscient nor infallible, they must be free to agree or disagree, to cooperate or to pursue their own independent course, each according to his own rational judgment. Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man's mind.
Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing.
More on These Topics
Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to live unreflectively and begins to devote himself to his life with reverence in order to raise it to its true value.
The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.
What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
There's no such thing as chance; and what to us seems merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny.
When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the now the primary focus of your life.
Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern, and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours.
As a rule, we find what we look for; we achieve what we get ready for.
Paying attention to simple little things that most men neglect makes a few men rich.
Keep your mind off the things you don’t want by keeping it on the things you do want.
Revenge-seeking minds destroy states, while those seeking reconciliation build nations.
The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose.
Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionately to their occupancy of your thoughts.
Just keep in mind: the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.
