Ayn Rand Quotes
Best quotes by the Russian Writer Ayn Rand
Go to table of contents
A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.
A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve,not by the desire to beat others.
Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice.
To say I love you one must know first how to say the I.
The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt.
The question isn't 'who is going to let me'; it's 'who is going to stop me'.
So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.
The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.
There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.
Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.
Upper classes are a nation's past, the middle class its future.
Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.
Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.
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.
Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death.
I don't build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build.
To achieve, you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that's real power.
God... a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive.
Evil requires the sanction of the victim.
Rights are not a matter of numbers - and there can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob.
Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves - or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.
Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.
Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth, the man who would make his fortune no matter where he started.
Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artists metaphysical value judgments.
But what man does out of despair, is not necessarily a key to his character. I have always thought that the real key is in that which he seeks for his enjoyment.
The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.
A building has integrity just like a man. And just as seldom.
Pictures quotes by Ayn Rand
Go to table of contents
Ayn Rand's Quotes About
Go to table of contentsAyn Rand rights quotes
Go to table of contents
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.
Rights are not a matter of numbers - and there can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob.
Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
Just as man can't exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one's rights into reality, to think, to work and keep the results, which means: the right of property.
More rights quotes
Ayn Rand power quotes
Go to table of contents
Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice.
To achieve, you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that's real power.
God... a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive.
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
To achieve, you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that's real power.
More power quotes
Ayn Rand life quotes
Go to table of contents
Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.
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.
Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death.
Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. 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 world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours.
Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.
More life quotes
Ayn Rand mind quotes
Go to table of contents
What is a demanding pleasure that demands the use of ones mind! Not in the sense of problem solving, but in the sense of exercising discrimination, judgment, awareness.
Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.
Man's consciousness is his least known and most abused vital organ. Most people believe that consciousness as such is some sort of indeterminate faculty which has no nature, no specific identity and therefore no requirements, no needs, no rules for being properly or improperly used.... Men abuse, subvert and starve their consciousness in a manner they would not dream of applying to their hair, toenails or stomachs. They know that these things have a specific identity and specific requirements, and, if one whishes to preserve them, one must comb one's hair, trim one's toenails and refrain from swallowing rat poison.
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.
More mind quotes
Ayn Rand love quotes
Go to table of contents
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.
Love is an expression and assertion of self-esteem, a response to one's own values in the person of another. One gains a profoundly personal, selfish joy from the mere existence of the person one loves. It is one's own personal, selfish happiness that one seeks, earns, and derives from love.
Love is the expression of one's values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities you have achieved in your character and person, the emotional price paid by one man for the joy he receives from the virtues of another.
To say "I love you" one must first be able to say the "I."
More love quotes
More quotes by Ayn Rand
Go to table of contents
To deal with men by force is as impractical as to deal with nature by persuasion.
Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.
Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.
Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.
What is a demanding pleasure that demands the use of ones mind! Not in the sense of problem solving, but in the sense of exercising discrimination, judgment, awareness.
Money is the barometer of a society's virtue.
Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think.
Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future.
Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.
A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving.
Every aspect of Western culture needs a new code of ethics -- a rational ethics -- as a precondition of rebirth.
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 man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap.
Government "help" to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.
The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.
Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.
Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. 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 world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours.
Learn to value yourself, which means fight for your happiness.
Envy is the only name she could find for the monstrous thing she faced, but it was much worse than envy: it was the profound hatred of life, of success and of all human values, felt by a certain kind of mediocrity...the kind who feels pleasure on hearing about a stranger's misfortune. It was hatred of the good for being the good...hatred of ability, of beauty, of honesty, of earnestness, of achievement and, above all, of human joy.
If you agree with some tenets of Objectivism, but disagree with others, do not call yourself an Objectivist; give proper authorship credit for the parts you agree with
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.
The American businessmen, as a class, have demonstrated the greatest productive genius and the most spectacular achievements ever recorded in the economic history of mankind. What reward did they receive from our culture and its intellectuals? The position of a hated, persecuted minority. The position of a scapegoat for the evils of the bureaucrats.
That which you call your soul or spirit is your conciousness, and that which you call 'free will' is your mind's freedom to think or not, the only will you have, your only freedom, the choice that controls all the choices you make and determines your life and your character.
An emotion is an automatic response, an automatic effect of man's value premises. An effect, not a cause. There is no necessary clash, no dichotomy between man's reason and his emotions
Do not consider Collectivists as sincere but deluded idealists. The proposal to enslave some men for the sake of others is not an ideal; brutality is not idealistic, no matter what its purpose. Do not ever say that the desire to do good by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.
All public interest legislation (and any distribution of money taken by force from some men for the unearned benefit of others) comes down ultimately to the grant of an undefined undefinable, non-objective, arbitrary power to some government officials. The worst aspect of it is not that such a power can be used dishonestly, but that it cannot be used honestly. The wisest man in the world, with the purest integrity, cannot find a criterion for the just, equitable, rational application of an unjust, inequitable, irrational principle.
A chronic lack of pleasure, of any enjoyable, rewarding or stimulating experiences, produces a slow, gradual, day-by-day erosion of man's emotional vitality, which he may ignore or repress, but which is recorded by the relentless computer of his subconscious mechanism that registers an ebbing flow, then a trickle, then a few last drops of fuel--until the day when his inner motor stops and he wonders desperately why he has no desire to go on, unable to find any definable cause of his hopeless, chronic sense of exhaustion.
Love is an expression and assertion of self-esteem, a response to one's own values in the person of another. One gains a profoundly personal, selfish joy from the mere existence of the person one loves. It is one's own personal, selfish happiness that one seeks, earns, and derives from love.
The good, say the mystics of spirit, is God, a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive - a definition that invalidates man's consciousness and nullifies his concepts of existence. The good, say the mystics of muscle, is Society - a thing which they define as an organism that possesses no physical form, a super-being embodied in no one in particular and everyone in general except yourself.... The purpose of man's life, say both, is to become an abject zombie who serves a purpose he does not know, for reasons he is not to question.
Man's consciousness is his least known and most abused vital organ. Most people believe that consciousness as such is some sort of indeterminate faculty which has no nature, no specific identity and therefore no requirements, no needs, no rules for being properly or improperly used.... Men abuse, subvert and starve their consciousness in a manner they would not dream of applying to their hair, toenails or stomachs. They know that these things have a specific identity and specific requirements, and, if one whishes to preserve them, one must comb one's hair, trim one's toenails and refrain from swallowing rat poison.
This is the difference between my morality and hedonism. The standard is not: that is good which gives me pleasure, just because it gives me pleasure (which is the standard of the dipsomaniac or the sex-chaser)
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.
The basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue and value. Do not confuse altruism with kindness, good will or respect for the rights of others. These are not primaries, but consequences, which, in fact, altruism makes impossible. The irreducible primary of altruism, the basic absolute, is self-sacrifice - which means: self-immolation, self-abnegation, self-denial, self-destruction - which means: the self as a standard of evil, the selfless as a standard of the good.
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.
People create their own questions because they are afraid to look straight. All you have to do is look straight and see the road, and when you see it, don't sit looking at it - walk.
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.
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.
Love is the expression of one's values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities you have achieved in your character and person, the emotional price paid by one man for the joy he receives from the virtues of another.
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
Just as man can't exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one's rights into reality, to think, to work and keep the results, which means: the right of property.
To say "I love you" one must first be able to say the "I."
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.
Every aspect of Western culture needs a new code of ethics - a rational ethics - as a precondition of rebirth.
To achieve, you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that's real power.
If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject.
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.
Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.
People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked…The man who lies to the world, is the world’s slave from then on…There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.
If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - What would you tell him?
I…don't know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?
To shrug.
There’s nothing as significant as a human face. Nor as eloquent. We can never really know another person, except by our first glance at him. Because, in that glance, we know everything. Even though we’re not always wise enough to unravel the knowledge.
The truth is not for all men but only for those who seek it.
You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part 1
Best Ayn Rand quotes
Part 2
Ayn Rand pictures quotes
Part 3
Ayn Rand's Quotes About ...
Rights
Power
Life
Mind
Love
All Ayn Rand quotes
