Authors:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Ayn Rand Quotes - Page 24

All Quotes Acceptance Achievement Acting Addiction Age Ambition Architecture Art Atheism Atheist Authority Being Happy Bill Of Rights Business Challenges Change Character Charity Children Choices Church Competition Compromise Conflict Consciousness Corruption Country Courage Creation Crime Culture Death Dedication Desire Dignity Duty Earth Economics Economy Effort Ego Egoism Emptiness Energy Eternity Ethics Evil Failing Fate Fear Feelings Fighting Free Market Freedom Frustration Funny Future Genius Giving Giving Up Gold Greatness Greed Guilt Hallmark Happiness Hate Hatred Heart History Home Honesty Honor House Humanity Hurt Identity Independence Individualism Individuality Insanity Inspiration Inspirational Inspiring Integrity Joy Judgement Judgment Justice Justification Kindness Knowledge Leadership Leaving Liberty Life Literature Live Life Logic Loneliness Love Lust Lying Mankind Mediocrity Money Morality Morning Motivation Motivational Obedience Objectivism Pain Passion Past Peace Perception Persuasion Philosophy Politics Power Pride Progress Property Property Rights Purpose Racism Reading Reality Recognition Recovery Religion Responsibility Running Sacrifice School Self Confidence Self Esteem Self Respect Selfishness Shame Sin Sleep Socialism Society Soul Struggle Stupidity Style Success Suffering Surrender Survival Talent Time Today Tolerance Trust Truth Tyranny Understanding Values Virtue Vision Waiting War Weakness Wealth Winning Wisdom Work Worship Writing

A mystic is a man who treats his feelings as tools of cognition.

A mystic is a man who treats his feelings as tools of cognition.

Men, Feelings, Tools

Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.34, Penguin

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.

Running, Blood, Effort

Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen (1986). “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”, p.142, Penguin

The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing.

Sacrifice, Self, World

The Fountainhead pt. 4, ch. 18 (1943)

Since only an individual man can possess rights, the expression "individual rights"? is a redundancy (which one has to use for purposes of clarification in today's intellectual chaos). But the expression "collective rights"? is a contradiction in terms.

Men, Expression, Rights

Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.385, Penguin

I am opposed to all forms of control. I am for an absolute, laissez-faire, free, unregulated economy.

Laissez Faire, Economy, Form

John Galt is Prometheus who changed his mind. After centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought to men the fire of the gods, he broke his chains—and he withdrew his fire—until the day when men withdraw their vultures.

Men, Fire, Mind

Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.397, Hamilton Books

A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving.

Inspirational, Witty, Goal

Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.286, Hamilton Books

I do not seek the good of others as a sanction for my right to exist, nor do I recognize the good of others as a justification for their seizure of my property or their destruction of my life.

Life, Rights, Novelists

Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.78, Penguin

We cannot fight against collectivism, unless we fight against its moral base: altruism. We cannot fight against altruism, unless we fight against its epistemological base: irrationalism. 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.

Fighting, Men, Views

Ayn Rand (1984). “Philosophy: Who Needs It”, p.201, Penguin

Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?

People, Want, Fountainhead

Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.30, Penguin

And questions give us no rest. We know not why our curse makes us seek we know not what, ever and ever. But we cannot resist it. It whispers to us that there are great things on this earth of ours, and that we can know them if we try, and that we must know them. We ask, why must we know, but it has no answer to give us. We must know that we may know.

Giving, Trying, Answers

Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.328, Penguin

She did not know the nature of her loneliness. The only words that named it were: This is not the world I expected.

Loneliness, World, Expected

Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.168, Hamilton Books

Love, friendship, respect, admiration are the emotional response of one man to the virtues of another, the spiritual payment given in exchange for the personal, selfish pleasure which one man derives from the virtues of another man’s character.

Spiritual, Selfish, Character

Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.28, Penguin

Truth is the recognition of reality; reason, man's only means of knowledge, is his only standard of truth.

Truth, Knowledge, Mean

Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.260, Penguin

If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject.

Men, Civilization, Religion

Ayn Rand (1984). “Philosophy: Who Needs It”, p.63, Penguin

I don't build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build.

Badass, Bad Ass, Order

It's not a question of who will allow me to do it, it's a question of who will stop me.

Dedication

We are on strike against the doctrine that life is guilt.

Guilt, Doctrine, Life Is

Ayn Rand (2005). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.954, Penguin

All public projects are mausoleums, not always in shapes, but always in cost.

Government, Cost, Shapes

Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.81, Penguin

I am only concerned with politics so I may see the day when I don't have to be concerned with politics.

May, Politics, Concerned

Sacrifice does not mean the rejection of the worthless, but of the precious

Mean, Sacrifice, Rejection

Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.113, Penguin

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.

Pride, Men, Joy

Ayn Rand (2016). “Anthem”, p.47, Xist Publishing

Every period ruled by mystics was an era of stagnation and want, when most men were on strike against existence.

Men, Want, Eras

Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.803, Hamilton Books

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.

Thinking, Long, Kind

Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.68, Hamilton Books

Now take a human body. Why wouldn't you like to see a human body with a curling tail with a crest of ostrich feathers at the end? And with ears shaped like acanthus leaves? It would be ornamental, you know, instead of the stark, bare ugliness we have now. Well, why don't you like the idea? Because it would be useless and pointless. Because the beauty of the human body is that is hasn't a single muscle which doesn't serve its purpose; that there's not a line wasted; that every detail of it fits one idea, the idea of a man and the life of a man.

Men, Ostriches, Ideas

You May Also Like: