“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
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“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”
― The Art of War
― The Art of War
“He had always wanted to write music, and he could give no other identity to the thing he sought. If you want to know what it is, he told himself, listen to the first phrases of Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto--or the last movement of Rachmaninoff’s Second. Men have not found the words for it, nor the deed nor the thought, but they have found the music. Let me see that in one single act of man on earth. Let me see it made real. Let me see the answer to the promise of that music. Not servants nor those served; not altars and immolations; but the final, the fulfilled, innocent of pain. Don’t help me or serve me, but let me see it once, because I need it. Don’t work for my happiness, my brothers--show me yours--show me that it is possible--show me your achievement--and the knowledge will give me courage for mine.”
― The Fountainhead
― The Fountainhead
“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”
― Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
― Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
Cassandra’s 2024 Year in Books
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