Ayn Rand Quotes page 4

“There can be no justification for choosing any part of that which one knows to be evil.”

Variant: Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.
Source: Atlas Shrugged

“The difference between animals and humans is that animals change themselves for the environment, but humans change the environment for themselves.”

Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

“It's so graceless, being a martyr. It's honoring your adversaries too much.”

“One must never allow oneself to acquire an exaggerated sense of one's own importance. There's no necessity to burden oneself with absolutes”

Source: The Fountainhead

“People, he thought, were as hungry for a sight of joy as he had always been--for a moment's relief from that gray load of suffering which seemed so inexplicable and unnecessary. He had never been able to understand why men should be unhappy.”

Source: The Fountainhead

“Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds, I am not a sacrifice on their altars.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand book Anthem

Anthem (1937)

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

“It's good to suffer. Dont complain. Bear, bow, accept - and be grateful that God has made you suffer. For this makes you better than the people who are laughing and happy.”

Source: The Fountainhead

“Psychologically, the choice "to think or not" is the choice "to focus or not." Existentially, the choice "to focus or not" is the choice "to be conscious or not." Metaphysically, the choice "to be conscious or not" is the choice of life or death.”

“I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.”

Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

Ayn Rand book Anthem

Anthem (1937)

“He never felt lonliness except when he was happy.”

“To achieve, you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that's real power.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

“Remember that rights are moral principles which define and protect a man's freedom of action, but impose no obligations on other men.”

“The quickest way to kill the human spirit is to ask someone to do mediocre work.”

Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

“It's a curse, you know, to be able to look higher than you're allowed to reach.”

Ayn Rand book We the Living

Source: We the Living

“What in hell are you really made of, Howard? After all, it's only a building. It's not the combination of holy sacrament, Indian torture, and sexual ecstasy that you seem to make of it."
"Isn't it?”

“She started off, walking fast, as if the speed of her steps could give form to the things she felt.”

Source: The Fountainhead

“An attempt to achieve the good by force is like an attempt to provide a man with a picture gallery at the price of cutting out his eyes.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966)

“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.”

“The sky is like a black sieve pierced by silver drops that tremble, ready to burst through.”

Source: The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand book Anthem

Source: Anthem

“Let us destroy, but don't let us pretend that we are commiting an act of virtue.”

“She was incapable of love for any object not of her own choice and she resented anyone's demand for it.”

Source: The Fountainhead

“The causes of illusions are not pretty to discover. They're either vicious or tragic.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

“I want to know that I've accomplished something. I want to feel that it had some meaning. At the last summing up, I want to be sure it wasn't all-for nothing.”

Source: The Fountainhead

“My dear fellow, who will let you?"
"That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?”

Source: The Fountainhead

“A Conformist is a man who declares, "It's true because others believe it" - but an Individualist is NOT a man who declares, "It's true because I believe it."
An Individual declares, "I believe it because I see in reason that it is true.”

“Fransisco, you're some kind of very high nobility, aren't you?" He answered, "Not yet. The reason my family has lasted for such a long time is that none of us has ever been permitted to think he is born a d'Anconia. We are expected to become one.”

Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

“Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966)

“It meant nothing to him any longer, only a faint tinge of sadness--and somewhere within him, a drop of pain moving briefly and vanishing, like a raindrop on the glass of a window, its course in the shape of a question mark.”

“Roark smiled, "Gail, if this boat were sinking, I'd give my life to save you. Not because it's any kind of duty. Only because I like you, for reasons and standards of my own. I could die for you. But I couldn't and wouldn't live for you.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

“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.”

Source: The Fountainhead

“Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production and trade…”

http://alexpeak.com/twr/racism/
The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

“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.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

“Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's value.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

“It's such a waste to be subtle and vicious with people who don't even know that you're being subtle and vicious”

“I feel that others live up to me, if they want me.”

Source: The Fountainhead

“You know, I think that only if one feels immensely important can one feel truly light.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

“There's so much nonsense about human inconstancy and the transience of all emotions. I've always thought that a feeling which changes never existed in the first place.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

“Did I feel a physical desire for him? I did. Was I moved by a passion of my body? I was. Have I experienced the most violent form of sensual pleasure? I have.”

“Serenity comes from the ability to say “Yes” to existence. Courage comes from the ability to say “No” to the wrong choices made by others.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand book Philosophy: Who Needs It

Source: Philosophy: Who Needs It

“The cult of moral grayness is a revolt against moral values.”

“Evil requires the sanction of the victim.”

Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

“He stepped to the window and pointed to the skyscrapers of the city. He said that we had to extinguish the lights of the world, and when we would see the lights of New York go out, we would know that our job was done.”

“I loathe your ideals because I know no worse injustice than the giving of the undeserved.”

The Fountainhead (1943).
Source: Atlas Shrugged
Context: That particular sense of sacred rapture men say they experience in contemplating nature- I've never received it from nature, only from. Buildings, Skyscrapers. I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need? And then people tell me about pilgrimages to some dank pest-hole in a jungle where they go to do homage to a crumbling temple, to a leering stone monster with a pot belly, created by some leprous savage. Is it beauty and genius they want to see? Do they seek a sense of the sublime? Let them come to New York, stand on the shore of the Hudson, look and kneel. When I see the city from my window - no, I don't feel how small I am - but I feel that if a war came to threaten this, I would like to throw myself into space, over the city, and protect these buildings with my body.

Ayn Rand book We the Living

Source: We the Living

“That an error made on your own is safer than ten truths accepted on faith, because the first leaves you the means to correct it but the second destroys your capacity to distinguish truth from error.”

“How do you always manage to decide?"
"How can you let others decide for you?”

“Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire.”

Source: The Fountainhead