Ayn Rand Quotes

The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.

The end does not justify the means. No one's rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others.

We are now moving towards complete collectivism or socialism, a system under which everybody is enslaved to everybody.

What greater wealth is there than to own your life and to spend it on growing? Every living thing must grow. It can't stand still. It must grow or perish.

Everyone has the right to make his own decisions, but none has the right to force his decision on others.

The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.

Serenity comes from the ability to say “Yes” to existence. Courage comes from the ability to say “No” to the wrong choices made by others.

Identify the dominant philosophy of a society and you can predict its future.

Words are a lens to focus one's mind.

To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That's what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul - would you understand why that's much harder?

We are born into this world unarmed - our mind is our only weapon.

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren

Defiance, not obedience, is the American's answer to overbearing authority.

The freedom of speech of private individuals includes the right to not agree, not to listen, and not to finance one's own antagonists.

If a society is to be free, its government has to be controlled.

The conservatives want to rule man's consciousness; the liberals, his body.

As we gain knowledge, we do not become more certain, we become certain of more.

No one's happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to destroy.

Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.

The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.

You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.

Whenever a man denounces the mind, it is because his goal is of a nature the mind would not permit him to confess.

Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing.

The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.

Do not ever say that the desire to 'do good' by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.

There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.

Creation comes before distribution -- or there will be nothing to distribute.

In a free society, one does not have to deal with those who are irrational. One is free to avoid them.

To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one's thinking; to maintain a contradiction is to abdicate one's mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality.

A 'mixed economy' is a society in the process of committing suicide.

The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence.

A man doesn't borrow pieces of his body. A building doesn't borrow hunks of its soul. Its maker gives it the soul and every wall, window and stairway to express it.

It is a free market that makes monopolies impossible.

A man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress.

To be the kind of writer you want to be, you must first be the kind of thinker you want to be.

Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.

God forgives those who invent what they need.

Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday...The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production.

Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.

I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.

A rational man never distorts or corrupts his own standards and judgment in order to appeal to the irrationality, stupidity, or dishonesty of others.

Collectivism is the ancient principle of savagery. ... Collectivism is not the 'New Order of Tomorrow.' It is the order of a very dark yesterday.

The essential characteristic of socialism is the denial of individual property rights.

When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us will win, but both will profit.

My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.

Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think.

Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.

Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves - or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.

Laissez-faire capitalism is the only social system based on the recognition of individual rights and, therefore, the only system that bans force from social relationships.