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It was the only thing I ever really wanted. And that__ the sin that can__ be forgiven--that I hadn__ done what I wanted. It feels so dirty and pointless and monstrous, as one feels about insanity, because there__ no sense to it, no dignity, nothing but pain--and wasted pain...why do they always teach us that it__ easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It__ the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage.
Ayn Rand
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It was the only thing I ever really wanted. And that__ the sin that can__ be forgiven--that I hadn__ done what I wanted. It feels so dirty and pointless and monstrous, as one feels about insanity, because there__ no sense to it, no dignity, nothing but pain--and wasted pain...why do they always teach us that it__ easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It__ the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage.

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We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.