Ayn Rand Quotes

If the truth shall kill them, let them die.

Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.

The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.

When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed

We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality

So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?

Every aspect of Western culture needs a new code of ethics - a rational ethics - as a precondition of rebirth.

But I don't think of you. - Howard Roark

You can ignore reality, but you can't ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.

Government 'help' to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.

Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.

The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.

The government was set to protect man from criminals, and the Constitution was written to protect man from the government.

Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.

Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.

The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.

I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline.

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.

Do not let your fire go out.

To demand 'sense' is the hallmark of nonsense. Nature does not make sense. Nothing makes sense.

Political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries.

The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time.

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I covet no man's soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.

There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.

The skyline of New York is a monument of a splendour that no pyramids or palaces will ever equal or approach.

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority.

An irresponsible person is a person who makes vague promises, then breaks his word, blames it on circumstances and expects other people to forgive it.

Live a life as a monument to your soul.

Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.

Whoever claims the right to redistribute the wealth produced by others is claiming the right to treat human beings as chattel.

Let no man posture as an advocate of peace if he proposes or supports any social system that initiates the use of force against individual men, in any form.

Even if smog were a risk to human life, we must remember that life in nature, without technology, is wholesale death.

To say 'I love you' one must first be able to say the 'I.'

People are not embracing collectivism because they have accepted bad economics. They are accepting bad economics because they have embraced collectivism.

Individualism regards man-every man-as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being.

Man needs knowledge in order to survive, and only reason can achieve it; men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason, can exist only as parasites on the thinking of others.

If any part of your uncertainty, is a conflict between your heart and your mind - follow your mind.

If you don't know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.

Any alleged 'right' of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.

He liked to observe emotions; they were like red lanterns strung along the dark unknown of another's personality, marking vulnerable points.

If one doesn't respect oneself one can have neither love nor respect for others.

every man is free to rise as far as he's able or willing, but the degree to which he thinks determines the degree to which he'll rise.

"Mediocrity" doesn't mean average intelligence, it means an average intelligence that resents and envies its betters.

A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort ... is not strictly speaking a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang violence.