Quote preview background for Ayn Rand
There are two aspects of man__ existence which are the special province and expression of his sense of life: love and art.I am referring here to romantic love, in the serious meaning of that term__s distinguished from the superficial infatuations of those whose sense of life is devoid of any consistent values, i.e., of any lasting emotions other than fear. Love is a response to values. It is with a person__ sense of life that one falls in love__ith that essential sum, that fundamental stand or way of facing existence, which is the essence of a personality. One falls in love with the embodiment of the values that formed a person__ character, which are reflected in his widest goals or smallest gestures, which create the style of his soul__he individual style of a unique, unrepeatable, irreplaceable consciousness. It is one__ own sense of life that acts as the selector, and responds to what it recognizes as one__ own basic values in the person of another. It is not a matter of professed convictions (though these are not irrelevant); it is a matter of much more profound, conscious and subconscious harmony.Many errors and tragic disillusionments are possible in this process of emotional recognition, since a sense of life, by itself, is not a reliable cognitive guide. And if there are degrees of evil, then one of the most evil consequences of mysticism__n terms of human suffering__s the belief that love is a matter of __he heart,_ not the mind, that love is an emotion independent of reason, that love is blind and impervious to the power of philosophy. Love is the expression of philosophy__f a subconscious philosophical sum__nd, perhaps, no other aspect of human existence needs the conscious power of philosophy quite so desperately. When that power is called upon to verify and support an emotional appraisal, when love is a conscious integration of reason and emotion, of mind and values, then__nd only then__t is the greatest reward of man__ life.
Ayn Rand The Romantic Manifesto
Turn into a Quote Card

Quote Detail

There are two aspects of man__ existence which are the special province and expression of his sense of life: love and art.I am referring here to romantic love, in the serious meaning of that term__s distinguished from the superficial infatuations of those whose sense of life is devoid of any consistent values, i.e., of any lasting emotions other than fear. Love is a response to values. It is with a person__ sense of life that one falls in love__ith that essential sum, that fundamental stand or way of facing existence, which is the essence of a personality. One falls in love with the embodiment of the values that formed a person__ character, which are reflected in his widest goals or smallest gestures, which create the style of his soul__he individual style of a unique, unrepeatable, irreplaceable consciousness. It is one__ own sense of life that acts as the selector, and responds to what it recognizes as one__ own basic values in the person of another. It is not a matter of professed convictions (though these are not irrelevant); it is a matter of much more profound, conscious and subconscious harmony.Many errors and tragic disillusionments are possible in this process of emotional recognition, since a sense of life, by itself, is not a reliable cognitive guide. And if there are degrees of evil, then one of the most evil consequences of mysticism__n terms of human suffering__s the belief that love is a matter of __he heart,_ not the mind, that love is an emotion independent of reason, that love is blind and impervious to the power of philosophy. Love is the expression of philosophy__f a subconscious philosophical sum__nd, perhaps, no other aspect of human existence needs the conscious power of philosophy quite so desperately. When that power is called upon to verify and support an emotional appraisal, when love is a conscious integration of reason and emotion, of mind and values, then__nd only then__t is the greatest reward of man__ life.
AR
Ayn Rand

The Romantic Manifesto

Quick Answer

What this quote page tells you

This canonical quote page keeps the full saying, the attributed author, any linked work, and the topic tags together so the quote can be cited from one stable URL.

Related Quotes

More quote cards from the same area