Delta Posted January 16, 2005 Report Share Posted January 16, 2005 There are a great many quotes from Rand's novels and essays that count among my favorites; generally, when I recall one I can paraphrase the quote pretty well, but alas, my owr words fall short of Rand's. I cau usually find them within minutes - but this one's been troubling me for days Anyone have any ideas? Below a paraphrasal of the quote: It is impossible to kill a man's self-respect, because it is self-contained. But there is no more cruel thing on the planet than to kill a man's pretension at self-respect. Ask anything of a man, but do not ask him to respect himself, he will hate you for it. My thanks and appreciation in advance - Delta. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephen_speicher Posted January 16, 2005 Report Share Posted January 16, 2005 There are a great many quotes from Rand's novels and essays that count among my favorites; generally, when I recall one I can paraphrase the quote pretty well, but alas, my owr words fall short of Rand's. I cau usually find them within minutes - but this one's been troubling me for days Anyone have any ideas? Below a paraphrasal of the quote: It is impossible to kill a man's self-respect, because it is self-contained. But there is no more cruel thing on the planet than to kill a man's pretension at self-respect. Ask anything of a man, but do not ask him to respect himself, he will hate you for it. Perhaps you are recalling something like this from Dominique's testimony on the Stoddard Temple in The Fountainhead, p. 356: "The Stoddard Temple is a threat to many things. If it were allowed to exist, nobody would dare to look at himself in the mirror. And that is a cruel thing to do to men. Ask anything of men. Ask them to achieve wealth, fame, love, brutality, murder, self-sacrifice. But don't ask them to achieve self-respect. They will hate your soul." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delta Posted January 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2005 Perhaps you are recalling something like this from Dominique's testimony on the Stoddard Temple in The Fountainhead, p. 356: "The Stoddard Temple is a threat to many things. If it were allowed to exist, nobody would dare to look at himself in the mirror. And that is a cruel thing to do to men. Ask anything of men. Ask them to achieve wealth, fame, love, brutality, murder, self-sacrifice. But don't ask them to achieve self-respect. They will hate your soul." That's a winner! My profound thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephen_speicher Posted January 16, 2005 Report Share Posted January 16, 2005 That's a winner! My profound thanks. You're welcome. I happened to remember that sentiment expressed in The Fountainhead, but a very useful tool in locating ideas and quotes from the Objectivist corpus is Phil Oliver's Objectivism Research CD-ROM, available at his web site here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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