Background Image

...

There Is Only One Institution That Can Arrogate To Itself The Power Legally To Trade By Means Of Rubber Checks: The Government. And It Is The Only Institution That Can Mortgage Your Future Without Your Knowledge Or Consent: Government Securities (and Paper Money) Are Promissory Notes On Future Tax Receipts, I.e., On Your Future Production.

-Ayn Rand

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

There Is Only One

Ayn Rand

...

There Is Only One Institution That Can Arrogate To Itself The Power Legally To Trade By Means Of Rubber Checks: The Government. And It Is The Only Institution That Can Mortgage Your Future Without Your Knowledge Or Consent: Government Securities (and Paper Money) Are Promissory Notes On Future Tax Receipts, I.e., On Your Future Production.

Views: 7

Topic

More From Ayn Rand

No Man Can Use His Brain To Think For Another.

I Am. I Think. I Will.

The Smallest Minority On Earth Is The Individual. Those Who Deny Individual Rights Cannot Claim To Be Defenders Of Minorities.

All Life Is A Purposeful Struggle, And Your Only Choice Is The Choice Of A Goal.

Do Not Help Your Jailers To Pretend That Their Jail Is Your Natural State Of Existence.

I Think That When In Doubt About The Truth Of An Issue, It's Safer And In Better Taste To Select The Least Numerous Of The Adversaries.

It Does Not Matter That Only A Few In Each Generation Will Grasp And Achieve The Full Reality Of Man's Proper Stature-and The Rest Will Betray It. It Is Those Few That Move The World And Give Life Its Meaning-and It Is Those Few That I Have Always Sought To Address. The Rest Are No Concern Of Mine; It Is Not Me Or "the Fountainhead" That They Will Betray: It Is Their Own Souls.

We Are All Brothers Under The Skin - And I, For One, Would Be Willing To Skin Humanity To Prove It.

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.

A Man's Sexual Choice Is The Result And The Sum Of His Fundamental Convictions.... He Will Always Be Attracted To The Woman Who Reflects His Deepest Vision Of Himself, The Woman Whose Surrender Permits Him To Experience A Sense Of Self-esteem. The Man Who Is Proudly Certain Of His Own Value, Will Want The Highest Type Of Woman He Can Find, The Woman He Admires, The Strongest, The Hardest To Conquer--because Only The Possession Of A Heroine Will Give Him The Sense Of An Achievement.

If One Doesn't Respect Oneself One Can Have Neither Love Nor Respect For Others.

It Is My Eyes Which See, And The Sight Of My Eyes Grants Beauty To The Earth.

Show Me Your Achievement, And The Knowledge Will Give Me Courage For Mine.

Thousands Of Years Ago The First Man Discovered How To Make Fire. He Was Probably Burnt At The Stake He'd Taught His Brothers To Light, But He Left Them A Gift They Had Not Conceived And He Lifted Darkness From The Face Of The Earth.

The Plot Of A Movie Is Its Motor. It Is Not An Accident That People Call Pictures 'vehicles' For Stars. A Vehicle Has To Move. A Plotless Story Is Like An Expensive Car With A Wonderful Body Design, Luxurious Seats, Upholstery, Headlights (production, Direction, Cast) - And No Motor Under Its Hood. That Is Why It Gets Nowhere.

Every Dictator Is A Mystic, And Every Mystic Is A Potential Dictator. A Mystic Craves Obedience From Men, Not Their Agreement. He Wants Them To Surrender Their Consciousness To His Assertions, His Edicts, His Wishes, His Whims - As His Consciousness Is Surrendered To Theirs. He Wants To Deal With Men By Means Of Faith And Force - He Finds No Satisfaction In Their Consent If He Must Earn It By Means Of Facts And Reason.

Self-sacrifice? But It Is Precisely The Self That Cannot And Must Not Be Sacrificed.

I Agree That [marriage] Should Be Treated Like A Business Deal. But Every Business Deal Has To Have Its Own Terms And Its Own Kind Of Currency.

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.

Independence Is The Recognition Of The Fact That Yours Is The Responsibility Of Judgment And Nothing Can Help You Escape It-that No Substitute Can Do Your Thinking, As No Pinch-hitter Can Live Your Life-that The Vilest Form Of Self-abasement And Self-destruction Is The Subordination Of Your Mind To The Mind Of Another, The Acceptance Of An Authority Over Your Brain, The Acceptance Of His Assertions As Facts, His Say-so As Truth, His Edicts As Middle-man Between Your Consciousness And Your Existence.

I Feel That Others Live Up To Me, If They Want Me.

In A Free Society, One Does Not Have To Deal With Those Who Are Irrational. One Is Free To Avoid Them.

You Know What You Are Actually In Love With? Integrity. The Impossible. The Clean, Consistent, Reasonable, Self-faithful, The All-of-one-style, Like A Work Of Art.

Did It Ever Occur To You, That There Is No Conflict Of Interests Among Men, Neither In Business Nor In Trade Nor In Their Most Personal Desires - If They Omit The Irrational From Their View Of The Possible And Destruction From Their View Of The Practical?

And Man Will Go On. Man, Not Men.

The Fight We Are In Here, Make No Mistake About It, Is A Fight Of Individualism Versus Collectivism.

Your Emotional Capacity Is An Empty Motor, And Your Values Are The Fuel With Which Your Mind Fills It. If You Choose A Mix Of Contradictions, It Will Clog Your Motor, Corrode Your Transmission And Wreck You On Your First Attempt To Move With A Machine Which You, The Driver, Have Corrupted.

The Cult Of Moral Grayness Is A Revolt Against Moral Values.

It Is Not Advisable To Venture Unsolicited Opinions. You Should Spare Yourself The Embarrassing Discovery Of Their Exact Value To Your Listener.

The Only Power Any Government Has Is The Power To Crack Down On Criminals. Well, When There Aren

When You See Corruption Being Rewarded And Honesty Becoming A Self-sacrifice, You May Know That Your Society Is Doomed

If Men Want To Oppose War, It Is Statism That They Must Oppose.

The Difference Between [socialism And Fascism] Is Superficial And Purely Formal, But It Is Significant Psychologically: It Brings The Authoritarian Nature Of A Planned Economy Crudely Into The Open. The Main Characteristic Of Socialism (and Of Communism) Is Public Ownership Of The Means Of Production, And, Therefore, The Abolition Of Private Property. The Right To Property Is The Right Of Use And Disposal. Under Fascism, Men Retain The Semblance Or Pretense Of Private Property, But The Government Holds Total Power Over Its Use And Disposal.

A Majority Vote Is Not An Epistemological Validation Of An Idea. Voting Is Merely A Proper Political Device--within A Strictly, Constitutionall Y Delimited Sphere Of Action--for Choosing The Practical Means Of Implementing A Society’s Basic Principles. But Those Principles Are Not Determined By Vote.

Your Soul Has A Single Basic Function-the Act Of Valuing.

I Am Not Primarily An Advocate Of Capitalism, But Of Egoism; I Am Not Primarily An Advocate Of Egoism, But Of Reason. If One Recognizes The Supremacy Of Reason And Applies It Consistently, All The Rest Follows.

This Was Solidarity. The Debutante Having Her Toenails Pedicured - The Housewife Buying Carrots From A Pushcart - The Bookkeeper Who Had Wanted To Be A Pianist, But Has The Excuse Of A Sister To Support - The Businessman Who Hated His Business - The Worker Who Hated His Work - The Intellectual Who Hated Everybody - All Were United As Brothers In The Luxury Of Common Anger That Cured Boredom And Took Them Out Of Themselves, And They Knew Well Enough What A Blessing It Was To Be Taken Out Of Themselves.

There Can Be No Compromise On Basic Principles. There Can Be No Compromise On Moral Issues. There Can Be No Compromise On Matters Of Knowledge, Of Truth, Of Rational Conviction.

America’s Founding Ideal Was The Principle Of Individual Rights. Nothing More-and Nothing Less. The Rest-everything That America Achieved, Everything She Became, Everything 'noble And Just,' And Heroic, And Great, And Unprecedented In Human History-was The Logical Consequence Of Fidelity To That One Principle.

Racism Is A Doctrine Of, By And For Brutes.

Truth Is The Recognition Of Reality; Reason, Man's Only Means Of Knowledge, Is His Only Standard Of Truth.

Morality Is A Code Of Black And White. When And If Men Attempt A Compromise, It Is Obvious Which Side Will Necessarily Lose And Which Will Necessarily Profit.

Black And White

What Is Man? He's Just A Collection Of Chemicals With Delusions Of Grandeur.

Delusions Of Grandeur

But A Few Understand That Building Is A Great Symbol We Live In Our Minds, And Existence Is The Attempt To Bring That Life Into Physical Reality, To State It In Gesture And Form. For The Man Who Understands This, A House He Owns Is A Statement Of His Life.

[what For] Was The First Question He Asked About Any Activity Proposed To Him - And Nothing Would Make Him Act, If He Found No Valid Answer. He Flew Through The Days Of His Summer Month Like A Rocket, But If One Stopped Him In Mid-flight, He Could Always Name The Purpose Of His Every Random Moment. Two Things Were Impossible To Him: To Stand Still Or To Move Aimlessly.

The Important Consideration Is Not Your Opponents, But Yourself. It Is Bad To Scream At Them, Not Because It Hurts Them, They Ought To Be Hurt, But Because It Hurts You. Anger Is A Form Of Recognition. It Amounts To Admitting That Those People Are Important To You And That They Have The Power To Hurt You. Actually, They Haven't.

If, Before Undertaking Some Action, You Must Obtain The Permission Of Society-you Are Not Free, Whether Such Permission Is Granted To You Or Not. Only A Slave Acts On Permission. A Permission Is Not A Right.

Worry Is A Waste Of Emotional Reserve".

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.

Remember That Rights Are Moral Principles Which Define And Protect A Man's Freedom Of Action, But Impose No Obligations On Other Men.

One Of The Most Destructive Anti-concepts In The History Of Moral Philosophy Is The Term 'duty.

Whoever, To Whatever Purpose Or Extent, Initiates The Use Of Force, Is A Killer Acting On The Premise Of Death In A Manner Wider Than Murder: The Premise Of Destroying Man's Capacity To Live.

The Freedom Of Speech Of Private Individuals Includes The Right To Not Agree, Not To Listen, And Not To Finance One's Own Antagonists.

Freedom Of Speech

If A Man Speculates On What 'society' Should Do For The Poor, He Accepts Thereby The Collectivist Premise That Men's Lives Belong To Society And That He, As A Member Of Society, Has The Right To Dispose Of Them...that Psychological Confession Reveals The Enormity Of The Extent To Which Altruism Erodes Men's Capacity To Grasp The Concept Of Rights Or The Value Of An Individual Life.

The Right To Agree With Others Is Not A Problem In Any Society; It Is The Right To Disagree That Is Crucial. It Is The Institution Of Private Property That Protects And Implements The Right To Disagree - And Thus Keeps The Road Open To Man's Most Valuable Attribute: The Creative Mind.

A Moment Or An Eternity—did It Matter? Life, Undefeated, Existed And Could Exist.

Never Ask People. Not About Your Work. Don't You Know What You Want? How Can You Stand It, Not To Know?

Ah, There's Nothing Like Tea In The Afternoon. When The British Empire Collapses, Historians Will Find That It Had Made But Two Invaluable Contributions To Civilization - This Tea Ritual And The Detective Novel.

The Political Function Of 'the Right Of Free Speech' Is To Protect Dissenters And Unpopular Minorities From Forcible Suppression - Not To Guarantee Them The Support, Advantages, And Rewards Of A Popularity They Have Not Gained.

The View That Man Was Ever To Be Drawn By Some Vision Of The Unattainable Shining Ahead, Doomed Ever To Aspire, But Not To Achieve, My Life And My Values Could Not Bring Me To That.

He Liked To Observe Emotions; They Were Like Red Lanterns Strung Along The Dark Unknown Of Another's Personality, Marking Vulnerable Points.

Do Not Let Your Fire Go Out ... Do Not Let The Hero In Your Soul Perish ... Check Your Road And The Nature Of Your Battle. The World You Desired Can Be Won. It Exists, It Is Real, It Is Possible, It Is Yours.

Man's Character Is The Product Of His Premises.

Paper Is A Check Drawn By Legal Looters Upon An Account Which Is Not Theirs: Upon The Virtue Of The Victims. Watch For The Day When It Bounces, Marked: 'account Overdrawn.'

Morally, The Promise Of An Impossible “right” To Economic Security Is An Infamous Attempt To Abrogate The Concept Of Rights. It Can And Does Mean Only One Thing: A Promise To Enslave The Men Who Produce, For The Benefit Of Those Who Don’t.

That Which You Call Your Soul Or Spirit Is Your Consciousness, And That Which You Call 'free Will' Is Your Mind's Freedom To Think Or Not, The Only Will You Have, Your Only Freedom, The Choice That Controls All The Choices You Make And Determines Your Life And Your Character.

The Nation Which Once Held The Creed That Greatness Is Achieved By Production, Is Now Told That It Is Achieved By Squalor.

For The First Time Since Her Return, She Felt Pain, A Violent Pain, But It Made Her Feel Alive, Because It Was Worth Feeling.

I Don't Like People Who Speak Or Think In Terms Of Gaining Anybody's Confidence. If One's Actions Are Honest, One Does Not Need The Predated Confidence Of Others, Only Their Rational Perception. The Person Who Craves A Moral Blank Check Of That Kind, Has Dishonest Intentions, Whether He Admits It To Himself Or Not.

If You Want To Save Capitalism There Is Only One Type Of Argument That You Should Adopt, The Only One That Has Ever Won In Any Moral Issue: The Argument From Self-esteem. Check Your Premises, Convince Yourself Of The Rightness Of Your Cause, Then Fight For Capitalism With Full, Moral Certainty.

It Is Not As Late As You Think. It Is Merely Early - In The Age Of The Rebirth Of Individualism.

Whether It’s A Symphony Or A Coal Mine, All Work Is An Act Of Creating And Comes From The Same Source: From An Inviolate Capacity To See Through One’s Own Eyes-which Means: The Capacity To Perform A Rational Identification- Which Means: The Capacity To See, To Connect And To Make What Had Not Been Seen, Connected And Made Before.

Money Is The Root Of All Good.

Great Men Can't Be Ruled.

People Don't Want To Think. And The Deeper They Get Into Trouble, The Less They Want To Think. But By Some Sort Of Instinct, They Feel That They Ought To And It Makes Them Feel Guilty. So They'll Bless And Follow Anyone Who Gives Them A Justification For Not Thinking. Anyone Who Makes A Virtue - A Highly Intellectual Virtue - Out Of What They Know To Be Their Sin, Their Weakness And Their Guilt.

Pleasure Is Nought But Virtue's Gayer Name-- I Wrong Her Still, I Rate Her Worth Too Low: Virtue The Root, And Pleasure Is The Flow'r.

The Action Required To Sustain Human Life Is Primarily Intellectual; Everything Man Needs Has To Be Discovered By His Mind And Produced By His Effort.

A Code Of Values Accepted By Choice Is A Code Of Morality.

It's Not A Question Of Who Will Allow Me To Do It, It's A Question Of Who Will Stop Me.

Men Have Been Taught That It Is A Virtue To Stand Together. But The Creator Is The Man Who Stands Alone.

Hence The Sterile, Uninspiring Futility Of A Great Many Theoretical Discussions Of Ethics, And The Resentment Which Many People Feel Towards Such Discussions: Moral Principles Remain In Their Minds As Floating Abstractions, Offering Them A Goal They Cannot Grasp And Demanding That They Reshape Their Souls In Its Image, Thus Leaving Them With A Burden Of Undefinable Moral Guilt.

A Viler Evil Than To Murder A Man, Is To Sell Him Suicide As An Act Of Virtue.

Who Was It That Said He Needed A Fulcrum? Give Me An Unobstructed Right-of-way And I'll Show Them How To Move The Earth!

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.

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.

Degrees Do Not Matter... One Does Not Bargain About Inches Of Evil.

The More Propaganda . . . Conservatives Spread For Capitalist Economics While At The Same Time Preaching Collectivism Morally And Philosophically , The More Nails They’ll Drive Into Capitalism’s Coffin.

Ideas Are The Greatest And Most Crucially Practical Power On Earth.

And That Night We Knew That To Hold The Body Of Women In Our Arms In Neither Ugly Nor Shameful, But The One Ecstasy Granted To The Race Of Men.

I Like To Receive Money For My Work. But I Can Pass That Up This Time. I Like To Have People Know My Work Is Done By Me. But I Can Pass That Up. I Like To Have Tenants Made Happy By My Work. But That Doesn't Matter Too Much. The Only Thing That Matters, My Goal, My Reward, My Beginning, My End Is The Work Itself. My Work Done My Way. Peter, There's Nothing In The World That You Can Offer Me, Except This. Offer Me This And You Can Have Anything I've Got To Give. My Work Done My Way. A Private, Personal, Selfish, Egotistical Motivation. That's The Only Way I Function. That's All I Am.

It Is One's Own Personal, Selfish Happiness That One Seeks, Earns, And Derives From Love.

To Arrive At A Contradiction Is To Confess An Error In One's Thinking; To Maintain A Contradiction Is To Abdicate One's Mind And To Evict Oneself From The Realm Of Reality.

Creation Comes Before Distribution -- Or There Will Be Nothing To Distribute.

It Is True That The Welfare-statists Are Not Socialists, That They Never Advocated Or Intended The Socialization Of Private Property, That They Want To 'preserve' Private Property-with Government Control Of Its Use And Disposal. But That Is The Fundamental Characteristic Of Fascism.

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.

Don't Think. Believe. Trust Your Heart, Not Your Brain. Don't Think. Feel. Believe.

Force And Mind Are Opposites; Morality Ends Where A Gun Begins.

A Society Without Intellectuals Is Like A Body Without A Head

The Man-worshipers, In My Sense Of The Term, Are Those Who See Man's Highest Potential And Strive To Actualize It. The Man-haters Are Those Who Regard Man As A Helpless, Depraved, Contemptible Creature-and Struggle Never To Let Him Discover Otherwise.

Let Me Give You A Tip On A Clue To Men's Characters: The Man Who Damns Money Has Obtained It Dishonorably; The Man Who Respects It Has Earned It.

If Men Want To Oppose War, It Is Statism That They Must Oppose. So Long As They Hold The Tribal Notion That The Individual Is Sacrificial Fodder For The Collective, That Some Men Have The Right To Rule Others By Force, And That Some (any) Alleged “good” Can Justify It-there Can Be No Peace Within A Nation And No Peace Among Nations.

In The Temple Of His Spirit, Each Man Is Alone.

She Watched The Prairies The Rivers, The Towns Slipping Past At An Untouchable Distance Below - And She Noted That The Sense Of Detachment One Feels When Looking At The Earth From A Plane Was The Same Sense She Felt When Looking At People: Only Her Distance From People Seemed Longer. - Dagny Taggart

For The Coming Of That Day Shall I Fight, I And My Sons And My Chosen Friends. For The Freedom Of Man. For His Rights. For His Life. For His Honor.

Do Not Let Your Fire Go Out.

Overcoming Addiction

Potentially, A Government Is The Most Dangerous Threat To Man's Rights; It Holds A Legal Monopoly On The Use Of Physical Force Against Legally Disarmed Victims. When Unlimited And Unrestricted By Individual Rights, A Government Is Man's Deadliest Enemy. It Is Not As Protection Against Private Actions, But Against Governmental Actions That The Bill Of Rights Was Written.

The Quickest Way To Kill The Human Spirit Is To Ask Someone To Do Mediocre Work.

When A Man Attempts To Deal With Me By Force, I Answer Him, By Force.

Those Who Say Theory And Practice Are Two Unrelated Realms Are Fools In One And Scoundrels In The Other.

Self Respect Is Something That Can't Be Killed. The Worst Thing Is To Kill A Man's Pretense At It.

The Creator's Concern Is The Conquest Of Nature. The Parasite's Concern Is The Conquest Of Men.

To Discuss Evil In A Manner Implying Neutrality, Is To Sanction It.

The Charming Aspect Of Christmas Is The Fact That It Expresses Good Will In A Cheerful, Happy, Benevolent, Non-sacrificial Way.

The Men Who Attempt To Survive, Not By Means Of Reason, But By Means Of Force, Are Attempting To Survive By The Method Of Animals.

Man Holds These Rights [life, Liberty And Property], Not From The Collective Nor For The Collective, But Against The Collective - As A Barrier Which The Collective Cannot Cross... These Rights Are Man's Protection Against All Other Men.

Love Is An Expression And Assertion Of Self-esteem, A Response To One's Own Values In The Person Of Another. One Gains A Profoundly Personal, Selfish Joy From The Mere Existence Of The Person One Loves. It Is One's Own Personal, Selfish Happiness That One Seeks, Earns, And Derives From Love.

She Did Not Know What It Was About Him That Had Always Made Her Want To See Him Broken.

Words Are A Lens To Focus One's Mind.

Patience Is Always Rewarded And Romance Is Always Round The Corner!

...only The Pleasure Which Proceeds From A Rational Value Judgement Can Be Regarded As Moral, Pleasure, As Such, Is Not A Guide To Action Nor A Standard Of Morality.

You Love Your Work. God Help You, You Love It! And Thats The Curse. That's The Brand On Your Forehead For All Of Them To See. You Love It And They Know It, And They Know They Have You. Do You Ever Look At The People In The Street? Aren't You Afraid Of Them? I Am. They Move Past You And They Wear Hats And They Carry Bundles. But That's Not The Substance Of Them. The Substance Of Them Is Hatred For Any Man Who Loves His Work. That's The Only Kind They Fear. I Don't Know Why

Action Without Thought Is Mindlessness, And Thought Without Action Is Hypocritical.

Look, Gail." Roark Got Up, Reached Out, Tore A Thick Branch Off A Tree, Held It In Both Hands, One Fist Closed At Each End; Then, His Wrists And Knuckles Tensed Against The Resistance, He Bent The Branch Slowly Into An Arc. "now I Can Make What I Want Of It: A Bow, A Spear, A Cane, A Railing. That's The Meaning Of Life." "your Strength?" "your Work." He Tossed The Branch Aside. "the Material The Earth Offers You And What You Make Of It . . .

We The Living Is Not A Novel 'about Soviet Russia.' It Is A Novel About Man Against The State. Its Basic Theme Is The Sanctity Of Human Life - Using The Word 'sanctity' Not In A Mystical Sense, But In The Sense Of 'supreme Value.'

No Man May Initiate The Use Of Physical Force Against Others. No Man-or Group Or Society Or Government-has The Right To Assume The Role Of A Criminal And Initiate The Use Of Physical Compulsion Against Any Man. Men Have The Right To Use Physical Force Only In Retaliation And Only Against Those Who Initiate Its Use. The Ethical Principle Involved Is Simple And Clear-cut: It Is The Difference Between Murder And Self-defense.

Get The Hell Out Of My Way!

Art Is The Indispensable Medium For The Communication Of A Moral Ideal.

There Is Only One Source Of Authentic Self-confidence: Reason.

Self Confidence

What Is Morality, She Asked. Judgement To Distinguish Right And Wrong, Vision To See The Truth, And Courage To Act Upon It, Dedication To That Which Is Good, Integrity To Stand By The Good At Any Price.

Any Work Is Creative Work If Done By A Thinking Mind.

Productive Work

The Worst Guilt Is To Accept An Undeserved Guilt — And That Is What You Have Been Doing All Your Life.

The Man Of Authentic Self-confidence Is The Man Who Relies On The Judgment Of His Own Mind. Such A Man Is Not Malleable; He May Be Mistaken, He May Be Fooled In A Given Instance, But He Is Inflexible In Regard To The Absolutism Of Reality, I.e., In Seeking And Demanding Truth.

Poverty Is Not A Mortgage On The Labor Of Others-misfortu Ne Is Not A Mortgage On Achievement-fai Lure Is Not A Mortgage On Success-sufferi Ng Is Not A Claim Check, And Its Relief Is Not The Goal Of Existence-man Is Not A Sacrificial Animal On Anyone’s Altar Nor For Anyone’s Cause-life Is Not One Huge Hospital.

Andrei, Did You Like The Opera?" "not Particularly." "andrei, Do You See What You're Missing?" "i Don't Think I Do, Kira. It's All Rather Silly. And Useless." "can't You Enjoy Things That Are Useless, Merely Because They Are Beautiful?" "no. But I Enjoyed It." "the Music?" "no. The Way You Listened To It.

Whatever Their Future, At The Dawn Of Their Lives, Men Seek A Noble Vision Of Man's Nature And Of Life's Potential.

The Adversary She Found Herself Forced To Fight Was Not Worth Matching Or Beating; It Was Not A Superior Ability Which She Would Have Found Honour In Challenging; It Was Ineptitude - A Grey Spread Of Cotton That Seemed Soft And Shapeless, That Could Offer No Resistance To Anything Or Anybody, Yet Managed To Be A Barrier In Her Way. She Stood, Disarmed, Before The Riddle Of What Made This Possible, She Could Find No Answer.

The Leaves Streamed Down, Trembling In The Sun. They Were Not Green, Only A Few, Scattered Through The Torrent, Stood Out In Single Drops Of Green So Bright And Pure That It Hurt The Eyes; The Rest Were Not A Color, But A Light, The Substance Of Fire On Metal, Living Sparks Without Edges. And It Looked As If The Forest Were A Spread Of Light Boiling Slowly To Produce This Color, The Green Rising In Small Bubbles, The Condensed Essence Of Spring. The Trees Met, Blending Over The Road And The Spots Of Sun On The Ground Moved With The Shifting Of The Branches, Like A Conscious Caress.

There Are No Evil Thoughts Except One; The Refusal To Think.

In This World, Either You're Virtuous Or You Enjoy Yourself. Not Both, Lady, Not Both.

I Don't Build In Order To Have Clients. I Have Clients In Order To Build.

America's Abundance Was Not Created By Public Sacrifices To The Common Good, But By The Productive Genius Of Free Men Who Pursued Their Own Personal Interests And The Making Of Their Own Private Fortunes.

Our Dearest One. Fear Nothing Of The Forest. There Is No Danger In Solitude. We Have No Need Of Our Brothers. Let Us Forget Their Good And Our Evil, Let Us Forget All Things Save That We Are Together And That There Is Joy As A Bond Between Us. Give Us Your Hand. Look Ahead. It Is Our Own World, Golden One, A Strange, Unknown World, But Our Own.

I Could Die For You. But I Couldn't, And Wouldn't, Live For You.

Government 'help' To Business Is Just As Disastrous As Government Persecution... The Only Way A Government Can Be Of Service To National Prosperity Is By Keeping Its Hands Off.

An Artist Recreates Those Aspects Of Reality Which Represent His Fundamental View Of Man's Nature.

Man Cannot Survive Except Through His Mind. He Comes On Earth Unarmed. His Brain Is His Only Weapon. Animals Obtain Food By Force. Man Had No Claws, No Fangs, No Horns, No Great Strength Of Muscle. He Must Plant His Food Or Hunt It. To Plant, He Needs A Process Of Thought. To Hunt, He Needs Weapons,and To Make Weapons - A Process Of Thought. From This Simplest Necessity To The Highest Religious Abstraction, From The Wheel To The Skyscraper, Everything We Are And We Have Comes From A Single Attribute Of Man -the Function Of His Reasoning Mind.

Whose Steps Were A Restless Substitute For Flight.

Every Loneliness Is A Pinnacle

She Felt A Board Indifference Toward The Immediate World Around Her Toward Other Children And Adults Alike. She Took It As A Regrettable Accident To Be Borne Patiently For A While, That She Happened To Be Imprisoned Among People Who Were Dull. She Had Caught A Glimpse Of Another World And She Knew It Existed Somewhere, The World That Had Created Trains, Bridges, Telegraph Wires And Signal Lights Winking In The Night. She Had To Wait She Thought, And Grow Up To That World. - Dagny Taggart

Just As Man Can't Exist Without His Body, So No Rights Can Exist Without The Right To Translate One's Rights Into Reality, To Think, To Work And Keep The Results, Which Means: The Right Of Property.

Don't Consider Our Interests Or Desires. You Have No Duty To Anyone But Yourself.

The Goal Of The 'liberals' - As It Emerges From The Record Of The Past Decades - Was To Smuggle This Country Into Welfare Statism By Means Of Single, Concrete, Specific Measures, Enlarging The Power Of The Government A Step At A Time, Never Permitting These Steps To Be Summed Up Into Principles, Never Permitting Their Direction To Be Identified Or The Basic Issue To Be Named. Thus, Statism Was To Come, Not By Vote Or By Violence, But By Slow Rot - By A Long Process Of Evasion And Epistemological Corruption, Leading To A Fait Accompli.

Identify The Dominant Philosophy Of A Society And You Can Predict Its Future.

Have You Felt It Too? Have You Seen How Your Best Friends Love Everything About You- Except The Things That Count? And Your Most Important Is Nothing To Them; Nothing, Not Even A Sound They Can Recognize.

I Can't Compete And When I Do, The Rules Of Engagement Change In The Middle Of The Game. I'll Let The Powers That Be Vanquish Themselves And Return In Three To Five Years To Sift Through The Remains.

I Dont Work With Collectives. I Don't Consult, I Don't Co-operate, I Don't Collaborate.

No Advocate Of Reason Can Claim The Right To Force His Ideas On Others. No Advocate Of The Free Mind Can Claim The Right To Force The Minds Of Others. No Rational Society, No Co-operation, No Agreement, No Understanding, No Discussion Are Possible Among Men Who Propose To Substitute Guns For Rational Persuasion.

I Write - And Read - For The Sake Of The Story... My Basic Test For Any Story Is: 'would I Want To Meet These Characters And Observe These Events In Real Life? Is This Story An Experience Worth Living Through For Its Own Sake? Is The Pleasure Of Contemplating These Characters An End Itself?

There Is Only One Institution That Can Arrogate To Itself The Power Legally To Trade By Means Of Rubber Checks: The Government. And It Is The Only Institution That Can Mortgage Your Future Without Your Knowledge Or Consent: Government Securities (and Paper Money) Are Promissory Notes On Future Tax Receipts, I.e., On Your Future Production.

In Order To Deal With Reality Successfully - To Pursue And Achieve The Values Which His Life Requires - Man Needs Self-esteem; He Needs To Be Confident Of His Efficacy And Worth.

Don't Ever Get Angry At A Man For Stating The Truth.

Their Eyes Were Dark And Hard And Glowing, With No Fear In Them, No Kindness And No Guilt.

My Dear Fellow, Who Will Let You?" "that's Not The Point. The Point Is, Who Will Stop Me?

One Of The Methods Used By Statists To Destroy Capitalism Consists In Establishing Controls That Tie A Given Industry Hand And Foot, Making It Unable To Solve Its Problems, Then Declaring That Freedom Has Failed And Stronger Controls Are Necessary.

A Mystic Is A Man Who Treats His Feelings As Tools Of Cognition.

Tell Me What A Person Finds Sexually Attractive And I Will Tell You Their Entire Philosophy Of Life. Show Me The Person They Sleep With And I Will Tell You Their Valuation Of Themselves.

That Which Exists Possesses Identity; He Could Keep It Out Of Existence By Refusing To Identify It.

What You Think Is An Illusion Created By Your Glands, Your Emotions And, In The Last Analysis, By The Content Of Your Stomach. That Gray Matter You're So Proud Of Is Like A Mirror In An Amusement Park Which Transmits To You Nothing But Distorted Signals From Reality Forever Beyond Your Grasp.

To Rest One's Case On Faith Means To Concede That Reason Is On The Side Of One's Enemies- That One Has No Rational Arguments To Offer.

If He Can Give His Readers No Reason Why They Should Read His Book, Except That The Events Happened To Him, It Is Not A Valid Book.

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.

The Government's Only Proper Job Is To Protect Individual Rights Against Violence By Force Or Fraud ... To Protect Men From Foreign Invaders ... To Settle Disputes Among Men According To Objective Laws ... The Greatness Of The Founding Fathers Was How Well They Understood This Issue And How Close Some Of Them Came To Understanding It Perfectly.

Integrity Is The Recognition Of The Fact That You Cannot Fake Your Consciousness, Just As Honesty Is The Recognition Of The Fact That You Cannot Fake Existence.

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.

While, Politically, A Mixed Economy Preserves The Semblance Of An Organized Society With A Semblance Of Law And Order, Economically It Is The Equivalent Of The Chaos That Had Ruled China For Centuries: A Chaos Of Robber Gangs Looting-and Draining-the Productive Elements Of The Country.

Thinking Men Cannot Be Ruled; Ambitious Men Do Not Stagnate.

Courage And Confidence Are Practical Necessities . . . Courage Is The Practical Form Of Being True To Existence, Of Being True To Truth, And Confidence Is The Practical Form Of Being True To One’s Own Consciousness.

A Rational Man Never Distorts Or Corrupts His Own Standards And Judgment In Order To Appeal To The Irrationality, Stupidity, Or Dishonesty Of Others.

As We Gain Knowledge, We Do Not Become More Certain, We Become Certain Of More.

I Refuse To Apologize For My Ability -- I Refuse To Apologize For My Success -- I Refuse To Apologize For My Money. If This Is Evil, Make The Most Of It.

If You Want To Feel Good, Be Rational.

There Is Fear Hanging In The Air Of The Sleeping Halls, And The Air Of The Streets. Fear Walks Through The City, Fear Without Name, Without Shape. All Men Feel It And None Dare Speak.

The Basic Need Of The Creator Is Independence. The Reasoning Mind Cannot Work Under Any Form Of Compulsion. It Cannot Be Curbed, Sacrificed Or Subordinated To Any Consideration Whatsoever. It Demands Total Independence In Function And In Motive.

Money Will Not Purchase Happiness For The Man Who Has No Concept Of What He Wants.

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.

If Some Men Are Entitled By Right To The Products Of The Work Of Others, It Means That Those Others Are Deprived Of Rights And Condemned To Slave Labor.

Since Religion Is A Primitive Form Of Philosophy — An Attempt To Offer A Comprehensive View Of Reality — Many Of Its Myths Are Distorted, Dramatized Allegories Based On Some Element Of Truth, Some Actual, If Profoundly Elusive, Aspect Of Man's Existence.

The Worst Evil That You Can Do, Psychologically, Is To Laugh At Yourself. That Means Spitting In Your Own Face.

Peter Keating: "do You Always Have To Have A Purpose? Do You Always Have To Be So Damn Serious? Can't You Ever Do Things Without Reason, Just Like Everybody Else? You're So Serious, So Old. Everything's Important With You. Everything's Great, Significant In Some Way, Every Minute, Even When You Keep Still. Can't You Ever Be Comfortable-and Unimportant?" | Howard Roark: "no."

It's The Person Who Would Sell His Soul For A Nickel, Who Is Loudest In Proclaiming His Hatred Of Money.

If A Society Is To Be Free, Its Government Has To Be Controlled.

Needless To Say, Under Either System [socialism Or Fascism], The Inequalities Of Income And Standard Of Living Are Greater Than Anything Possible Under A Free Economy -- And A Man's Position Is Determined, Not By His Productive Ability And Achievement, But By Political Pull And Force. Under Both Systems, Sacrifice Is Invoked As A Magic, Omnipotent Solution In Any Crisis -- And "the Public Good" Is The Altar On Which Victims Are Immolated.

Men Have Been Taught That Their First Concern Is To Relieve The Suffering Of Others. ... To Make That The Highest Test Of Virtue Is To Make Suffering The Most Important Part Of Life. Then Man Must Wish To See Others Suffer In Order That He May Be Virtuous. Such Is The Nature Of Altruism.

Suffering Of Others

Without Property Rights, No Other Rights Are Possible.

Property Rights

If You Tell An Amateur That His Story Is Not Good, He Always Declares Indignantly: 'oh, But It Really Happened Just Like This!' The Writer Who Doesn't Understand That This Is Beside The Point Is Not A Writer At All.

All Public Projects Are Mausoleums, Not Always In Shapes, But Always In Cost.

Sacrifice Does Not Mean The Rejection Of The Worthless, But Of The Precious

You Have Been Called Selfish For The Courage Of Acting On Your Own Judgement And Bearing Sole Responsibility For Your Own Life. You Have Been Called Arrogant For Your Independent Mind. You Have Been Called Cruel For Your Unyielding Integrity. You Have Been Calle Anti Social For The Vision That Made You Venture Upon Undiscovered Roads.

In Order To Be In Control Of Your Life, You Have To Have A Purpose-a Productive Purpose.

Control Of Your Life

There Are No Contradictions. If You Find One, Check Your Premises.

Trending Author

Dorothea Brande

Diane Von Furstenberg

Category