Quotes from Ayn Rand

la conciencia de haber ganado un lugar en un mundo al que respetaba, y obtenido el reconocimiento de personas a quienes admiraba.

if the majority of men cannot know what is good for them, each for himself, how can they know what is good for others by proxy? If they are to be controlled by specialists, how and by what standard can they choose the specialist?

So much is still to be learned! So long a road lies before us, and what care we if we must travel it alone!

with the gay exuberance that made him irresistible at times

Whatever road I take, the guiding star is within me;

She went on, protected from the world around her by a last armor: indifference.

there's no such thing as a lousy job—only lousy men who don't care to do it.

she was looking at the unborn secret of the Buena Esperanza Pass, she knew that this was oil drawn out of shale by some method men had considered impossible.

She felt an odd, light-hearted indifference, as if she suddenly wanted nothing but the comfort of surrendering to helplessness.

This god, this one word: I.

There's nothing important on earth, except human beings. There's nothing as important about human beings as their relations to one another....

The feeblest imbecile should be able to see the glaring contradictions in every one of your statements." "Let us put it this way, Dr. Stadler. The man who doesn't see that, deserves to believe all my statements.

Wynand asked: "Howard, have you ever been in love?" Roark turned to look straight at him and answer quietly: "I still am." "But when you walk through a building, what you feel is greater than that?" "Much greater, Gail.

one cannot deal with pure evil, with the naked, full-conscious evil that neither has nor seeks justification.

his stomach, cantilevered over his legs, did detract from the dignity, but it added to the kindliness.

él siente, el insulso, charlatán, estúpido y baboso cabrón de ojos esquivos y boca suelta!

she was suddenly as intently conscious of that particular moment, of herself and her own movement. She noticed her gray linen skirt, the rolled sleeve of her gray blouse and her naked arm reaching down for the paper. She felt her heart stop causelessly in the kind of gasp one feels in moments of anticipation.

You're the most immoral man living—you think of nothing but justice! You don't feel any love at all!

So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d.'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value.

Si viese usted a Atlas, el gigante que sostiene al mundo sobre sus hombros, si usted viese que él estuviese de pie, con la sangre latiendo en su pecho, con sus rodillas doblándose, con sus brazos temblando, pero todavía intentando mantener al mundo en lo alto con sus últimas fuerzas, y cuanto mayor sea su esfuerzo, mayor es el peso que el mundo carga sobre sus hombros, ¿qué le diría usted que hiciese? [...] Que se rebele.

Don't you want to live?" "Passionately." He saw the snap of a spark in Mr. Thompson's eyes and smiled. "I'll tell you more, I know that I want to live much more intensely than you do. I know that that's what you're counting on. I know that you, in fact, do not want to live at all. I want it, and because I want it so much, I will accept no substitute.

No man can predict the time when others will choose to return to reason.

I hadn't known what it was like, to want it, until I saw you for the first time. Do you know what it's like? To want it? The lowest of all desires - as my answer to the highest I've met. You trusted me, didn't you? To think of you as you deserve. Don't you suppose I know how much I've betrayed? I want you - and may I be damned for it! - Atlas Shrugged

Love of our brothers? That's when we learned to hate our brothers for the first time in our lives. We began to hate them for every meal they swallowed, for every small pleasure they enjoyed, for one man's new shirt, for another's wife's hat, for an outing with their family for a paint job on their house--it was taken from us, it was paid for by our privations, our denials, our hunger.