This book is a collection of short essays by Ayn Rand or Nathaniel Branden. At a first read, there seem to be logic holes in the exposition, but as you advance in the book, you realize that they are caused by the authors being too immersed in the topic and hence not the best people to explain it to a non-expert.
Some quotes I liked:
Life can be kept in existence only by a constant process of self-sustaining action. The goal of that action, the ultimate value which, to be kept, must be gained through its every moment, is the organism’s life.
An ultimate value is that final goal or end to which all lesser goals are the means – and it sets the standard by which all lesser goals are evaluated. An organism’s life is its standard of value: that which furthers its life is the good, that which threatens it is the evil.
The Objectivist ethics holds man’s life as the standard of vaue – and his own life as the ethical purpose of every individual man.
Man must choose his actions, values and goals by the standard of that which is proper to man – in order to achieve, maintain, fulfill and enjoy that ultimate value, that end in itself, which is his own life.
Value is that which one acts to gain and/or keep – virtue is the act by which one gains and/or keeps it. The three cardinal values of the Objectivist ethics [...] are: Reason, Purpose, Self-Esteem, with their three corresponding virtues: Rationality, Productiveness, Pride.
The virtue of Rationality [...] means a commitment to reason, not in sporadic fits or on selected issues or in special emergencies, but as a permanent way of life.
The basic social principle of the Objectivist ethics is that just as life is an end in itself, so every living human being is an end in itself, not the means to the ends or the welfare of others – and therefore, that man must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. To live for his own sake means that the achievement of his own happiness is man’s highest moral purpose.
Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.
And when one speaks of man’s right to exist for his own sake, for his own rational self-interest, most people assume automatically that this means his right to sacrifice others.
The Objectivist ethics holds that human good does not require human sacrifices and cannot be achieved by the sacrifice of anyone to anyone.
The principle of trade is the only rational ethical principle for all human relationships, personal and social, private and public, spiritual and material.
Love, friendship, respect, admiration, are the emotional response of one man to the virtues of another, the spiritual payment given in exchange for the personal, selfish pleasure which one man derives from the virtues of another man’s character.
The basic political principle of the Objectivist ethics is: no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. [...] Men have the right to use physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. (what to do about suicidal terrorists, though? Probably “those” extends to the organization) [...] no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force.
Commitment to reason is commitment to the maintenance of full intellectual focus, to the constant expansion of one’s understanding and knowledge, to the principle that one’s actions must be consistent with one’s convictions, that one must never attempt to fake reality or place any consideration above reality, that one must never permit oneself contradictions – that one must never attempt to subvert or sabotage the proper function of consciousness.
the alleged shortcut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short circuit destroying the mind
When one turns from reason to faith, when one rejects the absolutism of reality, one undercuts the absolutism of one’s consciousness – and one’s mind becomes an organ one cannot trust [completely] any longer.
Pride is one’s response to one’s power to achieve values, the pleasure one takes in one’s own efficacy
To love is to value
Your highest moral purpose is the achievement of your own happiness (at this point, you may say that you’d be happier if you stole your neighbor property; keep reading)
[on risking one’s life to save a stranger’s] only a lack of self-esteem could permit one to value one’s life no higher than that of any random stranger
What, then, should one properly grant to strangers? The generalized respect and good will which one should grant to a human being in the name of the potential value he represents – until and unless he forfeits it
A rational man does not act until he is able to say: “I want it because it is *right”
A rational man does not seek or desire any more or any less than his own effort can earn
