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  • Posted by johnpe1 12 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    OK; here it is, courtesy of the organizer of the group (I've only read AS 3 times and I'm embarrassed that I missed this!):
    The quote you are looking for is from Atlas Shrugged, Galt's Speech, at about 40 paragraphs from the end (emphasis added):
    "Learn to distinguish the difference between errors of knowledge and breaches of morality. An error of knowledge is not a moral flaw, provided you are willing to correct it; only a mystic would judge human beings by the standard of an impossible, automatic omniscience. But a breach of morality is the conscious choice of an action you know to be evil, or a willful evasion of knowledge, a suspension of sight and of thought. That which you do not know, is not a moral charge against you; but that which you refuse to know, is an account of infamy growing in your soul. Make every allowance for errors of knowledge; do not forgive or accept any breach of morality. Give the benefit of the doubt to those who seek to know; but treat as potential killers those specimens of insolent depravity who make demands upon you, announcing that they have and seek no reasons, proclaiming, as a license, that they 'just feel it'—or those who reject an irrefutable argument by saying: 'It's only logic,' which means: 'It's only reality.' The only realm opposed to reality is the realm and premise of death.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 12 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    did an online search and found that the North Texas Objectivist Society has it in their kinda-sorta-bylaws, so I joined & sent them an email message asking about the source. more to come! [their quote is: "Make every allowance for errors of knowledge; do not forgive or accept any breach of morality. Give the benefit of the doubt to those who seek to know.”]
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  • Posted by johnpe1 12 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    illucio, I had a shrink tell me once that emotions are as fundamental as thoughts are, and that I could expect to learn things about myself through emotional revelations. I replied that my emotions are the expression of my mind. It blew hers.
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  • Posted by illucio 12 years, 1 month ago
    The mind is our greatest organ, the heart is our fundamental pump. Should you confuse desire with wisdom, then doomed you are. Always overestimate the power of the mind, and learn to use it every day so that you concentrate even on the smallest things. This way you´ll discover how to be more effective in everything, more conscious of everything and more knowledgable in everything. Emotions too can be subdued to the mind, this is key in order to overcome them.
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  • Posted by preimert1 12 years, 1 month ago
    Favorite quote: "Don't necessarily attribute to malice what could just as well be explained by stupidity."
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  • Posted by $ Maphesdus 12 years, 1 month ago
    Where was this quote from, exactly? What was the context in which she said this?
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 12 years, 1 month ago
    Excellent quote. Rand is too often thought of as rigid and unforgiving. She knew we were all of different levels of understanding. She tried to educate and influence. When you read Mr. Peikoff's reflections of her patience with him in their early years you see she was passionate, but forgiving. But, what she could not forgive was one who forsake reason.
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