Ayn Rand quotes - page 12

I love you so much that nothing can matter to me - not even you... Only my love- not your answer. Not even your indifference. (Ayn Rand)
She knew that even pain can be confessed, but to confess happiness is to stand naked, delivered to the witness... View quote
Ayn Rand
Do you mean to tell me that you're thinking seriously of building, when and if you are an architect?” "Yes.” "My dear fellow, who will let you?” "That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me? View quote
Ayn Rand
Self respect is something that can't be killed. The worst thing is to kill a man's pretense at it. View quote
Ayn Rand
What is morality, she asked. Judgement to distinguish right and wrong, vision to see the truth, and courage to act upon it, dedication to that which is good, integrity to stand by the good at any price. View quote
Ayn Rand
No speech is ever considered, but only the speaker. It's so much easier to pass judgement on a man than on an idea. View quote
Ayn Rand
Compromise now, because you'll have to later, anyway, only then you'll have gone through things you'll wish you hadn't. View quote
Ayn Rand
Because I never have any definite destination. This ship is not for going to places, but for getting away from them. When I stop at a port, it's only for the sheer pleasure of leaving it. I always think: here's one more place that can't hold me. View quote
Ayn Rand
Remember that rights are moral principles which define and protect a man's freedom of action, but impose no obligations on other men. View quote
Ayn Rand
The only thing that matters my goal my reward my beginning my end is the work itself. My work done my way. A private personal selfish egotistical motivation. That's the only way I function. That's all I am. View quote
Ayn Rand
Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production and trade... (Ayn Rand)
She's a writer. The kind of writer who wouldn't be published outside. She believes that when one deals with words, one deals with the mind. View quote
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. View quote
Ayn Rand
The purpose of my work: to introduce, or, rather, to re-introduce the original ways of human development. Once viewed as personal responsibility, personal growth, education, and social doctrine were highly effective. Now that they have begun to be approached as an "acceptance," our ideals have begun to rely on the willingness of others to go along with our philosophies. It is now time for us to return to the selfish ideals of the past. View quote
Ayn Rand
Never initiate the use of force against another man. Never let his use of force against you remain unanswered by force. View quote
Ayn Rand
No single one can possess greater wisdom than the many scholars who are elected by all the men for their wisdom. Yet we can. We do. We have fought against saying it, but now it is said. We do not care. We forget all men, all laws and all things save our metals and our wires. So much is still to be learned! So long a road lies before us, and what care we if we must travel it alone! View quote
Ayn Rand
Let anyone who believes that a high standard of living is the achievement of labor unions and government controls ask himself the following question: If one had a "time machine" and transported the united labor chieftains of America, plus three million government bureaucrats, back to the tenth century-would they be able to provide the medieval serf with electric light, refrigerators, automobiles, and television sets? View quote
Ayn Rand
Now, I don't care to discuss the alleged complaints American Indians have against this country. I believe, with good reason, the most unsympathetic Hollywood portrayal of Indians and what they did to the white man. They had no right to a country merely because they were born here and then acted like savages. The white man did not conquer this country... View quote
Ayn Rand
All progress is the work of individuals. View quote
Ayn Rand
A crime is the violation of the right(s) of other men by force (or fraud). It is only the initiation of physical force against others- i. e., the recourse to violence- that can be classified as a crime in a free society (as distinguished from a civil wrong). Ideas, in a free society, are not a crime- and neither can they serve as the justification of a crime. View quote
Ayn Rand
It is fear that drives [the hippies] to seek the warmth, the protection, the safety of a herd. When they speak of merging themselves into a "greater whole," it is their fear that they hope to drown in the undemanding waves of unfastidious human bodies - and what they hope to fish out of that pool is the momentary illusion of an unearned personal significance. (Ayn Rand)
Neither life nor happiness can be achieved by the pursuit of irrational whims. Just as man is free to attempt to survive by any random means, as a parasite, a moocher or a looter, but not free to succeed at it beyond the range of the moment-so he is free to seek his happiness in any irrational fraud, any whim, any delusion, any mindless escape from reality, but not free to succeed at it beyond the range of the moment nor to escape the consequences. View quote
Ayn Rand
One of the paradoxes of our age is the fact that the intellectuals, the politicians, and all the sundry voices that choke like asthma the throat of our communications media, have never gasped and stuttered so loudly about their devotion to the public good, and about the people's will as the supreme criterion of value - and never have they been so grossly indifferent to the people. The reason, obviously, is that collectivist slogans serve as the rationalization for those who intend, not to follow the people, but to rule them. View quote
Ayn Rand
Today, racism is regarded as a crime if practiced by a majority-but as an inalienable right if practiced by a minority. View quote
Ayn Rand
The human race has only two unlimited capacities: one for suffering and one for lying. I want to fight religion as the root of all human lying and the only excuse for human suffering. View quote
Ayn Rand