Quote: Ayn Rand on the Root of All Evil
"So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?"
– Ayn Rand, American novelist and philosopher
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COMMENT
30 comments to "Quote: Ayn Rand on the Root of All Evil"
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Shay
May 13th, 2008 at
2:06 am
Those darned self-sacrificing altruists?
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james h
May 13th, 2008 at
2:10 am
She doesn't even get the quote right. It's "love of money".
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Alex Fear
May 13th, 2008 at
2:36 am
Enron?
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joe
May 13th, 2008 at
4:06 am
evil is an action (in this context)
money is a noun
so her quote makes no sense, much like everything else she ever wrote
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Pudifoot
May 13th, 2008 at
5:00 am
Joe: no, both are nouns.
(from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/evil)
Evil: n.
1. The quality of being morally bad or wrong; wickedness.
2. That which causes harm, misfortune, or destruction: a leader's power to do both good and evil.
3. An evil force, power, or personification.
4. Something that is a cause or source of suffering, injury, or destruction: the social evils of poverty and injustice. -
MoonCake
May 13th, 2008 at
6:34 am
the 'print' button?
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Max Power
May 13th, 2008 at
7:46 am
Far as I know, the jews?
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brandon
May 13th, 2008 at
8:05 am
The root of all money is work. Work is the endeavor of the highest honor. Thus, money cannot be the root of all evil. The root of evil can be found in the desire to obtain things without the input of effort.
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DCer
May 13th, 2008 at
8:26 am
Ayn Rand misunderstands the quote, like she misunderstands humanity and economics.
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j.d.
May 13th, 2008 at
8:51 am
how can one misintepret a line they create?
if you read the passage, maybe you'd understand.
knee-jerk reactions are always funny to read, because it takes just a few comments to set them straight.
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qwhacker
May 13th, 2008 at
9:54 am
if anyone is interested in reading the whole passage that this was based on, flip to page 380 of Atlas Shrugged. The speech this comes from goes on for about 5 pages and is written extremely well
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smak
May 13th, 2008 at
10:18 am
>> how can one misintepret a line they create?
Ayn Rand didn't come up with the saying, "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil." She's simply misquoting it to further her warped Objectivist philosophy.
@ qwhacker: I wouldn't pick up 'Atlas Shrugged' again except to use it to prop open a door or window.
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uh durrrrr
May 13th, 2008 at
10:45 am
The Central Banks.
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Thomas
May 13th, 2008 at
10:49 am
Work is the root of all money.... work is evil...? I knew it!!
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Tempscire
May 13th, 2008 at
12:59 pm
The speech this comes from goes on for about 5 pages and is written extremely well
Except she completely fails the whole "show, don't tell" rule for writing. Whatever the agenda of a novel, an author should not ever have characters lecturing the reader for pages on end.
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Ali S.
May 13th, 2008 at
2:06 pm
After having read "Atlas Shrugged" all I can say is never have I been so disgusted by a book. And I freakin' LOVE books! I couldn't stand the end where she bloody well starts preaching to the reader. If it takes an author to get to a point using more than 200 pages of bad metaphors and lame examples and disregard of simple economics then that author isn't doing something right. In this case trying to write a philosophical novel.
Next time I want to make a person to stop reading or have a love for books I'll give them my copy of "Atlas Shrugged". Ugh. I need to go clean my palate now.
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Sid Morrison
May 13th, 2008 at
2:47 pm
I liked Atlas Shrugged a good bit, but I thought the hundred page speeches by the protagonist were a bit much. The characters in Atlas are really one-dimensional as well -- you know who is good and who is bad when you first meet them and you don't changed your mind much through the book. Her better work (IMO) is The Fountainhead, where the characters are a little more "grey".
Oh, I also get irked when people (including Rand) misquote the famous words of St. Paul which spoke of the LOVE of money, not money itelf. Money itself is neither good nor bad, it is merely a tool to efficiently trade goods and services.
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phoenix
May 13th, 2008 at
3:20 pm
@DCer - got it in one!
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lordunger
May 13th, 2008 at
3:32 pm
In my opinion, selfishness is the root of all evil. Loving money and getting money are products of selfishness.
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izzymeckler
May 13th, 2008 at
4:49 pm
Wrong^
More Rand:
"There is a fundamental moral difference between a man who sees his self-interest in production and a man who sees it in robbery. The evil of a robber does not lie in the fact that he pursues his own interests, but in what he regards as to his own interest; not in the fact that he pursues his values, but in what he chose to value; not in the fact that he wants to live, but in the fact that he wants to live on a subhuman level (see “The Objectivist Ethics”)."If it is true that what I mean by “selfishness” is not what is meant conventionally, then this is one of the worst indictments of altruism: it means that altruism permits no concept of a self-respecting, self-supporting man—a man who supports his life by his own effort and neither sacrifices himself nor others. It means that altruism permits no view of men except as sacrificial animals and profiteers-on-sacrifice, as victims and parasites—that it permits no concept of a benevolent co-existence among men—that it permits no concept of justice."
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JET
May 14th, 2008 at
5:19 pm
Rand is a philosopher in the same sense that Paris Hilton is a musician. And anyone who thinks any of Rand's ponderous and stilted prose is "written extremely well" needs to read more.
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Ron
May 18th, 2008 at
12:43 am
It is a shame when people make a sentence so hard to understand, maybe people need more reading to understand her books, and you cannot judge a "filosofo" by one quote. the sentence
it is realy simple let me explain in first grade level
"the love of money", love is a good feeling, you make love a bad feeling, when you you love something bad!
in this sentence the MONEY is the evil caracther. so money is the root of all evil, as would be Satan. The thing here is that they put the money as responsible of one evils acts, and it is not true. the love to succeed can not be evil. beign a parasite is evil, and anything you do is because you choose, not the money.the root of all evil is the love of beating others, instead of the desire of achieving..... -
Shannon
September 28th, 2008 at
7:49 pm
Money is only materialistic. The root of all money is humanity. The one's who make unethical choices and rash decisions are usually people who have no moral values. Greed is what gave money its 'evil' roots and people are the ones who show greed. Just look at our nation in an economic crisis which was caused by a few individuals whose greed got the best of them. This comment is not made from a 'pointing fingers' perspective but from a perspective on how individuals who have malicious intentions of financial gain can affect society as a whole.
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Out
October 27th, 2008 at
3:22 pm
If anyone actually bothered to read the Rand text, you would find that she does address the, "love of money" as well in her dissection of this irrational quote. She knew the quote well and she refutes it completely.
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Reasonsjester
February 21st, 2009 at
2:38 am
She does say the "love of money" later on in the passage, James.
Don't look down your nose on Ayn Rand unless you've read her works and are familiar with her ideas. It is fine to reject her ideas, but make sure you are doing it on the basis of something besides the idea that "intellectuals don't think that way." This kind of effete intellectual peer pressure is a real scourge of free thought and discussion in this country.
P.S. Collectivism is lunacy. Take care.
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February 21st, 2009 at
2:43 am
Shannon, you should really read the work to understand that money is only a medium by which to gauge exchanges. It is an acknowledgment of scarcity, which Marx rejects. It is an acknowledgment of reality, which postmodernists reject. The disequilibrium in the economy is the direct result of government policies discordant with reality. This is no place for economic exegesis, but I point you in the direction of the Austrian School or Chicago School of economics for alternative theories of what is wrong with the economy. Don't let the "greedy capitalist pig" chimera emotionally manipulate you into not seeing what is plain to see from the vantage point of dispassionate analysis.
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February 21st, 2009 at
2:49 am
I've never read so many silly-minded "pretend" intellectuals in my life as on this board, I must add.
You guys are really the quintessential examples of what the KGB called "useful idiots."
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Yes
August 12th, 2009 at
5:00 pm
Could say the same about you, Reasonsjester.
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Cruiseryan
September 18th, 2009 at
12:06 am
Hey "Yes" Nice backing up your statement. Except you didn't. Say something worthwhile next time you make a comment.
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September 18th, 2009 at
12:07 am
Reasonsjester backs his shit up. Unless you can...other than in the form of your disjointed emotional diatribes, then simply read and learn.
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