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 3

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

There can be no compromise between freedom and government controls; to accept 'just a few controls' is to surrender the principle of inalienable individual rights and to substitute for it the principle of the

There can be no compromise between freedom and government controls; to accept 'just a few controls' is to surrender the principle of inalienable individual rights and to substitute for it the principle of the government’s unlimited, arbitrary power, thus delivering oneself into gradual enslavement. As an example of this process, observe the present domestic policy of the United States.

Rights, Government, Principles

Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.65, Penguin

Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness.

Happiness, Happy, Integrity

Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.220, Penguin

There are no evil thoughts except one; the refusal to think.

Dream, Thinking, Evil

Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.320, Hamilton Books

The government was set to protect man from criminals, and the Constitution was written to protect man from the government.

Men, Libertarian Party, Liberty

Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.92, Penguin

If you surrender everything to the government and give it total power to plan the whole economy, this will not guarantee your economic security, but it will guarantee the descent of the entire nation to a level of miserable poverty--as the practical results of every totalitarian economy, communist or fascist, have demonstrated.

Government, Giving, Guarantees

Without property rights, no other rights are possible.

Rights, Property, Property Rights

Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.394, Penguin

The source of the government's authority is “the consent of the governed.” This means that the government is not the ruler, but the servant or agent of the citizens; it means that the government as such has no rights except the rights delegated to it by the citizens for a specific purpose.

Mean, Rights, Government

Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.204, Penguin

A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort ... is not strictly speaking a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang violence.

Effort, Liberty, Together

An irresponsible person is a person who makes vague promises, then breaks his word, blames it on circumstances and expects other people to forgive it.

Responsibility, People, Forgiving

Ayn Rand (1997). “Letters of Ayn Rand”, p.476, Penguin

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority.

Rights, Liberty, Majority

Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.100, Penguin

The end does not justify the means. No one's rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others.

Mean, Rights, Liberty

Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.229, Penguin

The Founding Fathers were neither passive, death-worshipin g mystics nor mindless, power-seeking looters; as a political group they were a phenomenon unprecedented in history: they were thinkers who were also men of action.

Father, Men, Political

Since there is no such entity as 'the public,' since the public is merely a number of individuals, 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.

Rights, Ideas, Numbers

Ayn Rand (1990). “The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought”, p.243, Penguin

The problem is not those who dream, but those who can only dream.

Dream, Problem

Everyone has the right to make his own decisions, but none has the right to force his decision on others.

Decision, Liberty, Economics

Man's basic vice, the source of all his evils, is the act of unfocusing his mind, the suspension of his consciousness, which is not blindness, but the refusal to see, not ignorance, but the refusal to know.

Ignorance, Men, Evil

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

A BUSINESSMAN cannot force you to buy his product; if he makes a mistake, He suffers the consequences; if he fails, he takes the loss. A bureaucrat, forces you to obey his decisions, whether you agree with him or not... If he makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences; If he fails, He passes the loss on to you, in the form of heavier taxes.

Mistake, Loss, Decision

The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They come to be accepted by degrees, by dint of constant pressure on one side and constant retreat on the other - until one day when they are suddenly declared to be the country's official ideology.

Country, One Day, Degrees

Ayn Rand (1999). “The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution”, p.8, Penguin

The government has created a nation of paper criminals. People can be put in jail and lose civil rights and liberties through bureaucratic procedures.The only thing that is keeping you out of jail is government goodwill.

Jail, Rights, Government

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.

Life, Running, Fake People

Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.316, Hamilton Books

There are only two means by which men can deal with one another: guns or logic. Force or persuasion. Those who know that they cannot win by means of logic, have always resorted to guns.

Mean, Gun, Winning

Ayn Rand (1984). “Philosophy: Who Needs It”, p.70, Penguin

The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government.

Government, Liberty, Doe

Defiance, not obedience, is the American's answer to overbearing authority.

Answers, Obedience, Authority

Ayn Rand (1984). “Philosophy: Who Needs It”, p.200, Penguin

There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.

Inspirational, Courage, Two Sides

Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.102, Penguin

Do not make the mistake of the ignorant who think that an individualist is a man who says: “I’ll do as I please at everybody else’s expense.” An individualist is a man who recognizes the inalienable individual rights of man—his own and those of others.

Respect, Mistake, Men

Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.231, Penguin

You May Also Like: