Ayn Rand Quotes
It is easier to donate a few thousand to charity and think oneself noble than to base self-respect on personal standards of personal achievement.
Any group or "collective", large or small, is only a number of individuals. A group can have no rights other than the rights of its individual members.
Litigants obey the verdict of a tribunal solely on the premise that there is an objective rule of conduct, which they both accept.
Parties are intended to be celebrations, and celebrations should be only for those who have something to celebrate.
Style is not an end in itself, it is only a means to an end - the means of telling a story.
The men who attempt to survive, not by means of reason, but by means of force, are attempting to survive by the method of animals.
Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy: "I will it!
Compromise now, because you'll have to later, anyway, only then you'll have gone through things you'll wish you hadn't.
For the first time since her return, she felt pain, a violent pain, but it made her feel alive, because it was worth feeling.
Remember that rights are moral principles which define and protect a man's freedom of action, but impose no obligations on other men.
And that night we knew that to hold the body of women in our arms in neither ugly nor shameful, but the one ecstasy granted to the race of men.
She stood at the window, her arms spread wide, holding on to each side of the frame, it was as if she held a piece of the city.
When a man feels fear without reason, you call him to the attention of a psychiatrist; you are not so careful to protect the meaning, the nature and the dignity of love.
Dagny, we can never lose the things we live for. We may have to change their form at times, if we've made an error, but the purpose remains the same and the forms are ours to make.
Through the dry phases of calculations in her mind, she noticed that she did have time to feel something: it was the hard, exhilarating pleasure of action.
There were things in my past which I have not liked. But all the things of which I was proud will remain.
Kira, the highest thing in man is not his god. It's that in him which knows the reverence due a god. And you, Kira, are my highest reverence.
Virtue is not an end in itself. Virtue is not its own reward or sacrificial fodder for the reward of evil. Life is the reward of virtue-and happiness is the goal and the reward of life.
The men who are not interested in philosophy need it most urgently; they are most helplessly in its power.
The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way.
Non-thinking is an act of annihilation, a wish to negate existence, an attempt to wipe out reality. But existence exists; reality is not to be wiped out, it will merely wipe out the wiper
There's only one passion in most artists more violent than their desire for admiration: their fear of identifying the nature of such admiration as they do receive.
Whoever, to whatever purpose or extent, initiates the use of force, is a killer acting on the premise of death in a manner wider than murder: the premise of destroying man's capacity to live.
...only the pleasure which proceeds from a rational value judgement can be regarded as moral, pleasure, as such, is not a guide to action nor a standard of morality.
It's the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money.
She thought: at this moment, the glass stem between his fingers feels just like the one between mine. We have this much in common.
The sky is like a black sieve pierced by silver drops that tremble, ready to burst through.
She started off, walking fast, as if the speed of her steps could give form to the things she felt.
