All progress is the work of individuals. Ayn Rand
America’s abundance was created not by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America’s industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages, and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance- and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way. Ayn Rand
An attempt to achieve the good by force is like an attempt to provide a man with a picture gallery at the price of cutting out his eyes. Ayn Rand
Anything may be betrayed, anyone may be forgiven, but not those who lack the courage of their own greatness. Ayn Rand
Businessmen are the one group that distinguishes capitalism and the American way of life from the totalitarian statism that is swallowing the rest of the world. All the other social groups- workers, farmers, professional men, scientists, soldiers- exist under dictatorships, even though they exist in chains, in terror, in misery, and in progressive self-destruction. But there is no such group as businessmen under a dictatorship. Their place is taken by armed thugs: by bureaucrats and commissars. Businessmen are the symbol of a free society- the symbol of America. Ayn Rand
Capitalism has created the highest standard of living ever known on earth. The evidence is incontrovertible. Ayn Rand
Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. Ayn Rand
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. Ayn Rand
Competition is a by-product of productive work, not its goal. A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others. Ayn Rand
Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong. Ayn Rand
Contrary to the ecologists, nature does not stand still and does not maintain the kind of equilibrium that guarantees the survival of any particular species – least of all the survival of her greatest and most fragile product: man. Ayn Rand
Economic power is exercised by means of a positive, by offering men a reward, an incentive, a payment, a value; political power is exercised by means of a negative, by the threat of punishment, injury, imprisonment, destruction. The businessman’s tool is values; the bureaucrat’s tool is fear. Ayn Rand
Every coercive monopoly was created by government intervention into the economy: by special privileges, such as franchises or subsidies, which closed the entry of competitors into a given field, by legislative action. Ayn Rand
Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others. Ayn Rand
Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Ayn Rand
Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where the gun begins. Ayn Rand
Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values. Ayn Rand
I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows. Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand Quotes
I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine. Ayn Rand
If any part of your uncertainty, is a conflict between your heart and your mind – follow your mind. Ayn Rand
In a capitalist society, all human relationships are voluntary. Men are free to cooperate or not, to deal with one another or not, as their own individual judgments, convictions and interests dictate. Ayn Rand
Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law. Ayn Rand
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. Ayn Rand
Man – every man – is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life. Ayn Rand
Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it’s up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be. Ayn Rand
Man is the only living species that has the power to act as his own destroyer – and that is the way he has acted through most of his history. Ayn Rand
Never initiate the use of force against another man. Never let his use of force against you remain unanswered by force. Ayn Rand
No one’s happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to destroy. Ayn Rand
Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent. Ayn Rand
Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. Ayn Rand
The Arabs are one of the least developed cultures. They are typically nomads. Their culture is primitive, and they resent Israel because it’s the sole beachhead of modern science and civilization on their continent. When you have civilized men fighting savages, you support the civilized men, no matter who they are. Ayn Rand
The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed or subordinated to any consideration whatsoever. It demands total independence in function and in motive. Ayn Rand
The desire not to be anything is the desire not to be. Ayn Rand
The hippies are a desperate herd looking for a master, to be taken over by anyone – anyone who would tell them how to live without demanding the effort of thinking. Theirs is the mentality ready for a fuhrer. Ayn Rand
The hippies are the living demonstration of what it means to give up reason. Ayn Rand
The moral cannibalism of all hedonist and altruist doctrines lies in the premise that the happiness of one man necessitates the injury of another. Ayn Rand
The only proper, moral purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence – to protect his right to his own life, to his own liberty, to his own property and to the pursuit of his own happiness. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Ayn Rand
The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live. Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand Quotes
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. Ayn Rand
The right to vote is a consequence, not a primary cause, of a free social system – and its value depends on the constitutional structure implementing and strictly delimiting the voters’ power; unlimited majority rule is an instance of the principle of tyranny. Ayn Rand
The skyline of New York is a monument of a splendor that no pyramids or palaces will ever equal or approach. Ayn Rand
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. Ayn Rand
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. Ayn Rand
The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it. Ayn Rand
There are only two means by which men can deal with one another: guns or logic. Force or persuasion. Those who know that they cannot win by means of logic, have always resorted to guns. Ayn Rand
There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil. Ayn Rand
To demand ‘sense’ is the hallmark of nonsense. Nature does not make sense. Nothing makes sense. Ayn Rand
To me, there is only one form of human depravity – the man without a purpose. Ayn Rand
Upper classes are a nation’s past; the middle class is its future. Ayn Rand
Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. Ayn Rand
What is greatness? I will answer: it is the capacity to live by the three fundamental values of John Galt: reason, purpose, self-esteem. Ayn Rand
When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is. Ayn Rand
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. Ayn Rand
When the common good of a society is regarded as something apart from and superior to the individual good of its members, it means that the good of some men takes precedence over the good of others, with those others consigned to the status of sacrificial animals. Ayn Rand
Words are a lens to focus one’s mind. Ayn Rand