Ayn Rand Quotes

A house can have integrity, just like a person.

Of all the statist violations of individual rights in a mixed economy, the military draft is the worst. It is an abrogation of rights. It negates man’s fundamental right – the right to life – and establishes the fundamental principle of statism: that a man’s life belongs to the state, and the state may claim […]

At present, even so dismal a figure as President Nixon is a hopeful sign – precisely because he is so dismal. If any other country were in as desperately precarious a state of confusion as ours, a dozen flambouyant Fuhrers would have sprung up to take it over. It is to America’s credit that no […]

It makes no difference whether government controls allegedly favor the interests of labor or business, of the poor or the rich, of a special class or a special race: the results are the same. The notion that a dictatorship can benefit any one social group at the expense of others is a worn remnant of […]

Qua religion, no – in the sense of blind belief, belief unsupported by, or contrary to, the facts of reality and the conclusions of reason. Faith, as such, is extremely detrimental to human life: it is the negation of reason.

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.

In our political life, the Argument from Intimidation is the almost exclusive method of discussion. Predominantly, today’s political debates consist of smears and apologies, or intimidation and appeasement. The first is usually (though not exclusively) practiced by the “liberals,” the second by the “conservatives.” The champions, in this respect, are the “liberal” Republicans who practice […]

The conservatives want freedom to act in the material realm; they tend to oppose government control of production, of industry, of trade, of business, of physical goods, of material wealth. But they advocate government control of man’s spirit, i.e., man’s consciousness; they advocate the State’s right to impose censorship, to determine moral values, to create […]

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

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 […]