Ayn Rand in The Ayn Rand Lexicon

On Environment: Pollution is a technological problem, not a political one

"City smog and filthy rivers are not good for men(though they are not the kind of danger that the ecological panic-mongers proclaim them to be). This is a scientific, technological problem--not a political one--and it can be solved only by technology. Even if smog were a risk to human life, we must remember that life in nature, without technology, is wholesale death." [Quoted from "The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution", 1971] Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon, by Harry Binswanger, p. 135 Jan 1, 1986

On Principles & Values: I'm an atheist; religion is from man's mind,not supernatural

"[There is one] possibly misleading sentence in Roark's speech: 'From this simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, everything we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute of man--the function of his reasoning mind.' This could be misinterpreted to mean an endorsement of religion or religious ideas. Roark's and my atheism, as well as the overall spirit of the book, were clear, particularly since I said that religious abstractions are the product of man's mind, not of supernatural revelation." [Quoted from writings in 1968, about 'The Fountainhead'] Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon, by Harry Binswanger, p.414-415 Jan 1, 1986

On Technology: A few independent minds raise productivity via technology

Nothing can raise a country's productivity except technology, and technology is the final product of a complex of sciences (including philosophy) each of them kept alive and moving by the achievements of a few independent minds. Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon, by Harry Binswanger, p. 494 Jan 1, 1988

On Welfare & Poverty: Capitalism eliminates poverty

Capitalism has created the highest standard of living ever known on earth. The evidence is incontrovertible. The contrast between west and east Berlin is the latest demonstration, like a laboratory experiment for all to see. Yet those who are loudest in proclaiming their desire to eliminate poverty are loudest in denouncing capitalism. Man's well being is not their goal. Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon, by Harry Binswanger, p. 60 Jan 1, 1988

On Free Trade: Unhampered, unobstructed operation of the free market

The only actual factor required for the existence of free competition is: the unhampered, unobstructed operation of the mechanism of the free market. The only action which a government can take to protect free competition is: Laissez-faire!--which , in free translation, means: Hands Off! But the antitrust laws established exactly the opposite of the results they had been intended to achieve. Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon, by Harry Binswanger, p. 80 Jan 1, 1988

On Budget & Economy: Government pays back borrowed money with more borrowed money

To free itself--for a while--from the limits set by reality, the government initiates a credit con game on a scale which the private manipulator could not dream of. It borrows money from you today, which is to be repaid with money it will borrow from you tomorrow. This is known as 'deficit financing'. It is made possible by the fact that the government cuts the connection between goods and money. It issues paper money, which is issued as a claim check. Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon, by Harry Binswanger, p.117 Jan 1, 1988

On Education: Education should equip students for learning on their own

The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past--and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own efforts. Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon, by Harry Binswanger, p.137 Jan 1, 1988

On Foreign Policy: Essence of capitalism's foreign policy is free trade

The essence of capitalism's foreign policy is free trade--i.e., the abolition of trade barriers, of protective tariffs, of special privileges--the opening of the world's trade routes to free international exchange and competition among the private citizens of all countries dealing directly with one another. Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon, by Harry Binswanger, p.169 Jan 1, 1988

On Jobs: Unemployment results from minimum wage laws

The artificially high wages forced on the economy by compulsory unionism imposed economic hardships on other groups--particularly on non-union workers and on unskilled labor, which was being squeezed gradually out of the market. Today's widespread unemployment is the result of organized labor's privileges and of allied measures such as minimum wage laws. Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon, by Harry Binswanger, p.513 Jan 1, 1988

On War & Peace: Capitalism is fundamentally opposed to war

Laissez-faire capitalism is the only social system based on the recognition of individual rights and, therefore, the only system that bans force from social relationships. By the nature of its basic principles and interests, it is the only system fundamentally opposed to war. Men who are free to produce, have no incentive to loot; they have nothing to gain from war and a great deal to lose. Economically, wars cost money, in a free economy, where wealth is privately owned, the costs of war come out of the income of private citizens. A citizen cannot hope to recoup his own financial losses by winning the war. Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon, by Harry Binswanger, p.526 Jan 1, 1988

On Welfare & Poverty: Impossible right to economic security implies slave labor

Morally, the promise of an impossible 'right' to economic security is an infamous attempt to abrogate the concept of rights. It can and does mean only one thing: a promise to enslave the men who produce, for the benefit of those who don't. If some men are entitled by right to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor. Source: "The Ayn Rand Lexicon, " by Harry Binswanger, p.529 Jan 1, 1998

The above quotations are from The Ayn Rand Lexicon Objectivism from A to Z edited by Harry Binswanger. Click here for other excerpts from The Ayn Rand Lexicon Objectivism from A to Z edited by Harry Binswanger. Click here for other excerpts by Ayn Rand. Click here for a profile of Ayn Rand.
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