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 26

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

But you see, said Roark quietly, I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I’m only condemning myself to sixty years

But you see," said Roark quietly, "I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I’m only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is a matter of standards—and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one.

Years, Joy, May

Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.36, Penguin

The word 'We' is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages.

Crush, Strong, Men

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

Emotions are inherent in your nature, but their content is dictated by your mind. Your emotional capacity is an empty motor, and your values are the fuel with which your mind fills it.

Emotional, Mind, Fuel

Ayn Rand (2005). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.964, Penguin

I think. I am. I will.

Life, Thinking

If the rest of them can survive only by destroying us, then why should we wish them to survive? . . . Nothing can make it moral to destroy the best. One can't be punished for being good. One can't be penalized for ability.

Wish, Moral, Destroying

Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.59, Hamilton Books

We are on strike against martyrdom—and against the moral code that demands it. We are on strike against those who believe that one man must exist for the sake of another. We are on strike against the morality of cannibals, be it practiced in body or in spirit. We will not deal with men on any terms but ours—and our terms are a moral code which holds that man is an end in himself and not the means to any end of others.

Believe, Mean, Men

Ayn Rand (1957). “Atlas Shrugged”, E P Dutton

Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be.

Witty, Men, Evil

Ayn Rand (2005). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.9, Penguin

Then no rightful cause was left, and the pain of anger was turning into the shameful pain of submission. He had no right to condemn anyone - he thought - to denounce anything, to fight and die joyously, claiming the sanctity of virtue. The broken promises, the unconfessed desires, the betrayal, the deceit, the lies, the fraud - he was guilty of them all. What form of corruption could he scorn? Degrees do not matter, he thought; one does not bargain about inches of evil.

Betrayal, Pain, Lying

Productive work is the central purpose of a rational man's life, the central value that integrates and determines the hierarchy of all his other values. Reason is the source, the precondition of his productive work, pride is the result.

Work, Pride, Men

Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.23, Penguin

Selfishness does not mean only to do things for one's self. One may do things, affecting others, for his own pleasure and benefit. This is not immoral, but the highest of morality.

Mean, Self, Doe

"Journals of Ayn Rand". Book by Ayn Rand, 1997.

Altruism declares that any action taken for the benefit of others is good, and any action taken for one's own benefit is evil. Thus the beneficiary of an action is the only criterion of moral value - and so long as that beneficiary is anybody other than oneself, anything goes.

Taken, Long, Evil

Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.80, Penguin

The creator's concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite's concern is the conquest of men.

Men, Political, Politics

Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.875, Penguin

Errors of knowledge are not breaches of morality; no proper moral code can demand infallibility or omniscience.

Errors, Demand, Morality

Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.72, Penguin

When one turns from reason to faith, when one rejects the absolutism of reality, one undercuts the absolutism of one's consciousness - and one's mind becomes an organ one cannot trust any longer. It becomes what the mystics claim it to be: a tool of distortion.

Reality, Mind, Absolutism

Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.35, Penguin

Don't think of them now. Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them. You're here. It's our time and our life, not theirs. Don't struggle not to be happy. You are." - John Gault

Pain, Struggle, Fighting

Ayn Rand (1957). “Atlas Shrugged”

"You were not born to be a second-hander." Howard Roark to Gail Wynand in "The Fountainhead"

Action, Fountainhead, Howard Roark

There is no such thing as duty. If you know that a thing is right, you want to do it. If you don't want to do it - it isn't right. If it's right and you don't want to do it - you don't know what right is and you're not a man.

Men, Want, Duty

Ayn Rand (2009). “We the Living”, p.80, Penguin

If it were true that men could achieve their good by means of turning some men into sacrificial animals, and ... if I were asked to serve the interests of society apart from, above and against my own I would refuse... I would fight in the full confidence of the justice of my battle and of a living being's right to exist.

Life, Mean, Fighting

"The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z".

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.

Men, Sight, People

Ayn Rand (2005). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.42, Penguin

A building has integrity just like a man. And just as seldom.

Integrity, Men, Architecture

"Onlogic: Speed and Vision". Book by Kas Oosterhuis, Ilona Lénárd, 2008.

I regret nothing. There have been things I missed, but I ask no questions, because I have loved it, such as it has been, even the moments of emptiness, even the unanswered-and that I loved it, that is the unanswered in my life.

Regret, Emptiness, Moments

Ayn Rand (2005). “The Fountainhead”, p.524, Penguin

Ask anything of men. Ask them to achieve wealth, fame, love, brutality, murder, self-sacrifice. But don’t ask them to achieve self-respect. They will hate your soul.

Hate, Sacrifice, Men

Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.69, Penguin

Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it.

Gun, Gold, Doe

Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.74, Penguin

I saw that evil was impotent—that evil was the irrational, the blind, the anti-real—and that the only weapon of its triumph was the willingness of the good to serve it.

Real, Evil, Triumph

Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.170, Penguin

Civilization does not have to perish. The brutes are winning only by default.

Winning, Civilization, Doe

Ayn Rand (1984). “Philosophy: Who Needs It”, p.73, Penguin

You May Also Like: