Quote #5

'I'm very aware of that over-application of the trader principle, as if that's all you need to know to understand human relationships. Good God... [W]ho among you, tell the truth, last time you played with a little kid-or a dog, did you think you're going to have a trade relationship with the dog later in life, for crying out loud? Because there's a good analogy there... As a dog-lover, when I'm looking at a dog nose to nose, the trade is happening right now. The interaction is the reward... Anybody who doesn't understand that, I don't wish to speak to. My official response to such people: they can go fuck themselves.'[5]

More from Nathaniel Branden

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  2. 'Objectivism comes on, sometimes, as if the most important issue you have to understand is the issue of egoism versus altruism. But that's …
  3. 'When your principles seem to be demanding suicide, clearly it's time to check your premises'[3]
  4. 'Ernest Van Den Haag, a sociologist, wrote a fascinating book called The Jewish Mystique. I read that book, got a lot out of it, and went o…
  5. 'Objectivism says the sole purpose of government is to protect individual rights. I would say the primary purpose of government is to prote…
  6. 'In order to have any sense of control over our own life, we need to know that we're able to make sense out of our experience, in all of it…
  7. '[H]e has been a very underestimated man by his opponents. I think that his understanding and handling of our relationship with the Soviet …
  8. 'Most of the failings of Objectivism all pertain directly or indirectly to issues of psychology.'[1]

All Nathaniel Branden quotes