Ayn Rand

Just as man's physical existence was liberated when he grasped that 'nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed', so his consciousness will be liberated when grasps that nature, to be apprehended, must be obeyed - that the rules of cognition must be derived from the nature of existence and the nature, the identity, of his cognitive faculty. - Ayn Rand

If physical force is to be barred from social relationships, men need an institution charged with the task of protecting their rights under an objective code of rules. This is the task of a government - of a proper government - its basic task, its only moral justification and the reason why men do need a government. A government is the means of placing the retaliatory use of physical force under objective control - i.e., under objectively defined laws. - Ayn Rand

It is the metaphysically given that must be accepted: it cannot be changed. It is the man-made that must never be accepted uncritically: it must be judged, then accepted or rejected and changed when necessary. - Ayn Rand

The men who are not interested in philosophy need it most urgently; they are most helplessly in its power. - Ayn Rand

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

A "whim" is a desire experienced by a person who does not know and does not care to discover its cause. - Ayn Rand

Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. - Ayn Rand

Since time immemorial and pre-industrial, 'greed' has been the accusation hurled at the rich by the concrete-bound illiterates who were unable to conceive of the source of wealth or of the motivation of those who produce it. - Ayn Rand

The Middle Ages were an era of mysticism, ruled by blind faith and blind obedience to the dogma that faith is superior to reason. The Renaissance was specifically the rebirth of reason, the liberation of man's mind, the triumph of rationality over mysticism - a faltering, incomplete, but impassioned triumph that led to the birth of science, of individualism, of freedom. - Ayn Rand

It is not as late as you think. It is merely early - in the age of the rebirth of individualism. {1946} - Ayn Rand

The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. - Ayn Rand

A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race - and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin. - Ayn Rand

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. - Ayn Rand

All work is an act of philosophy. - Ayn Rand

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

Whether you know the shape of a pebble or the structure of a solar system, the axioms remain the same: that it exists and that you know it. - Ayn Rand

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others. - Ayn Rand

And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: "I." - Ayn Rand

To preserve one's mind intact through a modern college education is a test of courage and endurance, but the battle is worth it and the stakes are the highest possible to man: the survival of reason. {from "The Comprachicos"} - Ayn Rand

The desire not to be anything is the desire not to be. - Ayn Rand

Neither life nor happiness can be achieved by the pursuit of irrational whims. Just as a 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 not to escape the consequences. - Ayn Rand

Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments. An artist recreates those aspects of reality which represent his fundamental view of man's nature. - Ayn Rand

Howard Roark laughed. He stood naked at the edge of a cliff... {opening line from 'The Fountainhead'} - Ayn Rand

Today, when a concerted effort is made to obliterate this point, it cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals - that it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government - that it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizens' protection against the government. - Ayn Rand

In western civilization, the period ruled by mysticism is known as the 'Dark Ages' and the 'Middle Ages'. I will assume that you know the nature of that period and the state of human existence in those ages. The Renaissance broke the rules of the mystics. "Renaissance" means the "rebirth". Few people today will care to remind you that it was a rebirth of reason - of man's mind. - 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

Words are a lens to focus one’s mind.  - Ayn Rand

America's abundance was not created 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.  - Ayn Rand

I made my fortune by being able to spot a certain kind of man. - Ayn Rand

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

We cannot fight against anything, unless we fight for something -- and what we must fight for is the supremacy of reason, and a view of man as a rational being. - Ayn Rand

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.  - Ayn Rand

The idea that 'the public interest' supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning: that the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others. - Ayn Rand

One's own independent judgment is the means by which one must choose one's actions, but it is not a moral criterion nor a moral validation; only reference to a demonstrable principle can validate one's choices. - Ayn Rand

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

Just as life is an end in itself, so every living human being is an end in himself, not the means to the ends or the welfare of others - and, therefore, man must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. - 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

Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason. - Ayn Rand