Quotes from Ayn Rand

From the smallest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from one attribute of man - the function of his reasoning mind.

Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.

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

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

Money is the barometer of a society's virtue.

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion...th at in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing-you may know that your society is doomed.

Living in a society, instead of on a desert island, does not relieve a man of the responsibility of supporting his own life.

Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach.

The worst guilt is to accept an undeserved guilt — and that is what you have been doing all your life.

If you know that this life is all that you have, wouldn't you make the most of it?

Don't ever give up what you want in life. The struggle is worth it.

I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life.

All life is a purposeful struggle, and your only choice is the choice of a goal.

Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.

It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.

Get the hell out of my way!

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

I'm working to improve my methods, and every hour I save is an hour added to my life.

My dear fellow, who will let you?" "That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?

That which is not worth contemplating in life, is not worth recreating in art.

We are on strike against the doctrine that life is guilt.

I do not seek the good of others as a sanction for my right to exist, nor do I recognize the good of others as a justification for their seizure of my property or their destruction of my life.

I think. I am. I will.