Ayn Rand Quotes (341 Quotes)


    By the grace of reality and the nature of life, man-every man-is an end in himself, he exists for his own sake, and the achievement of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose



    The world is ours, whenever we choose to claim it, by virtue and grace of the fact that ours is the Morality of Life.

    When one acts on pity against justice, it is the good whom one punishes for the sake of the evil; when one saves the guilty from suffering, it is the innocent whom one forces to suffer. There is no escape from justice, nothing can be unearned and unpaid for in the universe, neither in matter nor in spirit-and if the guilty do not pay, then the innocent have to pay it.


    Compromise now, because you'll have to later, anyway, only then you'll have gone through things you'll wish you hadn't.




    The walls are cracked and water runs upon them within threads without sound, black and glistening as blood.





    Why had we let it go? Why had we both been condemned...to an exile among dreary strangers who had made us give up all desire for rest, for friendship, for the sound of human voices? Could I now reclaim a single hour spent talking to my brother, Philip, and give it to Ken Daggart? Who made it our duty to accept, as the only reward for our work, the gray torture of pretending love for those who roused nothing but contempt?

    Degrees of ability vary, but the basic principle remains the same: the degree of a man's independence, initiative and personal love for his work determines his talent as a worker and his worth as a man. Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn't done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence.



    There is no affirmation without the one who affirms. in this sense, everything to which you grant your love is yours

    Guilt is a rope that wears thin.

    He had a big head and a face so ugly it became almost fascinating.

    ... there's nothing of any importance in life except how well you do your work. Nothing. Only that. Whatever else you are, will come from that. It's the only measure of human value. All the codes of ethics they'll try to ram down your throat are just so much paper money put out by swindlers to fleece people of their virtues. The code of competence is the only system of morality that's on a gold standard.

    He stood motionless, not turning to the crowd, barely hearing the applause. He stood looking at the judges. There was no triumph in his face, no elation, only the still intensity of contemplating a vision with a bitter wonder that was almost fear. He was seeing the enormity of the smallness of the enemy who was destroying the devastation, past the ruins of great factories, the wrecks of powerful engines, the bodies of invincible men, he had come upon the despoiler, expecting to find a giant and had found a rat eager to scurry for cover at the first sound of a human step. If this is what has beaten us, he thought, the guilt is ours.

    Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday... The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production.


    That love is reverence, and worship, and glory, and the upward glance. Not a bandage for dirty sores. But they don't know it. Those who speak of love most promiscuously are the ones who've never felt it. They make some sort of feeble stew out of sympathy, compassion, comtempt, and general indiference, and they call it love. Once you've felt what it means to love as you and I know it - the total passion for the total height - you are unable of anything else.

    The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them.

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

    When personal judgment is inoperative (or forbidden), men's first concern is not how to choose, but how to justify their choice

    The adversary she found herself forced to fight was not worth matching or beating it was not a superior ability which she would have found honour in challenging it was ineptitude a grey spread of cotton that seemed soft and shapeless, that could offer no resistance to anything or anybody, yet managed to be a barrier in her way. She stood, disarmed, before the riddle of what made this possible, she could find no answer.

    Since a rational man's ambition is unlimited, since his pursuit and achievement of values is a lifelong process and the higher the values, the harder the struggle he needs a moment, an hour or some period of time in which he can experience the sense of his completed task, the sense of living in a universe where his values have been successfully achieved. It is like a moment of rest, a moment to gain fuel to move farther.

    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.

    Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence. Did you get your money by fraud By pandering to men's vices or men's stupidity By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves By lowering your standards By doing work you despise for purchasers your scorn If so, then your money will not give you a moment's or a penny's worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach not an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you'll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would not pinch-hit for your self-respect Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity Is this the root of your hatred of money.

    What for was the first question he asked about any activity proposed to him and nothing would make him act, if he found no valid answer. He flew through the days of his summer month like a rocket, but if one stopped him in mid-flight, he could always name the purpose of his every random moment. Two things were impossible to him to stand still or to move aimlessly.

    You're not sorry. You could've been here if you made the effort. But when did you ever make an effort for anybody but yourself You're not interested in any of us or in anything we do. You think if you pay the bills, that's enough, don't you Money That's all you know. And all you give us is money. Have you even given us any time.

    My pride and my power of vision were all that I owned when I started and whatever I achieved, was achieved by means of them. Both are greater now. Now I have the knowledge of the superlative value I had missed of my right to be proud of my vision. The rest is mine to reach.

    The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life

    So long as men desire to live together, no man may initiate the use of physical force against others.... When a man attempts to deal with me by force, I answer him by force. It is only as retaliation that force may be used and only against the man who starts its use. No, I do not share his evil or sink to his concept of morality I merely grant him his choice, destruction, the only destruction he had the right to choose his own.

    Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death.

    We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality

    The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt.

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

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

    Creation comes before distribution -- or there will be nothing to distribute.

    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.

    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.

    Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.

    Nobody stays here by faking reality in any manner whatever.

    Don't consider our interests or desires. You have no duty to anyone but yourself.

    Man's unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself.


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