Quotes by Ayn Rand (Author of Atlas Shrugged)

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Ayn Rand Quotes

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“ [Dean] “My dear fellow, who will let you?”
[Roark] “That’s not the point. The point is,

who will stop me?
Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
Like · 16582
“ Do not let your fire go out, spark by

irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps
of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-
all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in
lonely frustration for the life you deserved
and have never been able to reach. The
world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is
real.. it is possible.. it's yours.
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Tags: inspirational, life
Like · 7760
“ If you don't know, the thing to do is not to

get scared, but to learn.
Tags: atlas, shrugged
Like · 3694
“ Learn to value yourself, which means: fight

for your happiness.
Ayn Rand
Tags: fight, happiness, learn
Like · 3260
“ I could die for you. But I couldn't, and

wouldn't, live for you.
Tags: death, die, fountainhead, life, live,
mortality
Like · 2825
“ Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect

nothing. To depend on nothing.
Tags: independence
Like · 2473
“ People think that a liar gains a victory over

his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is
an act of self-abdication, because one
surrenders one’s reality to the person to
whom one lies, making that person one’s
master, condemning oneself from then on to
faking the sort of reality that person’s view
requires to be faked…The man who lies to
the world, is the world’s slave from then
on…There are no white lies, there is only the
blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the
blackest of all.
Tags: lying, rearden, slave, truth, victim
Like · 2148
“ Love is blind, they say; sex is impervious to

reason and mocks the power of all
philosophers. But, in fact, a person's sexual
choice is the result and sum of their
fundamental convictions. 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. No matter
what corruption they're taught about the
virtue of selflessness, sex is the most
profoundly selfish of all acts, an act which
they cannot perform for any motive but
their own enjoyment - just try to think of
performing it in a spirit of selfless charity! -
an act which is not possible in self-
abasement, only in self-exultation, only on
the confidence of being desired and being
worthy of desire. It is an act that forces
them to stand naked in spirit, as well as in
body, and accept their real ego as their
standard of value. They will always be
attracted to the person who reflects their
deepest vision of themselves, the person
whose surrender permits them to
experience - or to fake - a sense of self-
esteem .. Love is our response to our highest
values - and can be nothing else.
Ayn Rand
Tags: sex
Like · 2141
“ To say "I love you" one must know first how

to say the "I".
Tags: self-acceptance, self-awareness
Like · 1893
“ A creative man is motivated by the desire to

achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
Ayn Rand
Like · 1888
“ I swear by my life and my love of it that I

will never live for the sake of another man,
nor ask another man to live for mine.
Tags: john-galt
Like · 1723
“ Why do they always teach us that it's easy

and evil to do what we want and that we
need discipline to restrain ourselves? It's the
hardest thing in the world--to do what we
want. And it takes the greatest kind of
courage. I mean, what we really want.
Ayn Rand
Tags: career, inspiration, life
Like · 1624
“ The smallest minority on earth is the

individual. Those who deny individual
rights cannot claim to be defenders of
minorities.
Ayn Rand
Tags: freedom-of-thought, philosophy, politics,
rights
Like · 1616
“ I started my life with a single absolute: that

the world was mine to shape in the image of
my highest values and never to be given up
to a lesser standard, no matter how long or
hard the struggle.
Tags: galt, objectivism, philosophy, taggart
Like · 1399
“ The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly

evident which everybody has decided not to
see.
Tags: unpleasant-truth, willful-ignorance
Like · 1246
“ 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.
Tags: philosophic-philosophy
Like · 1170
“ The man who does not value himself, cannot

value anything or anyone.
Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness: A New
Concept of Egoism
Tags: self-esteem
Like · 1136
“ 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.
Like · 924
“ 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.
Like · 822
“ If you tell a beautiful woman that she is

beautiful, what have you given her? It's no
more than a fact and it has cost you nothing.
But if you tell an ugly woman that she is
beautiful, you offer her the great homage of
corrupting the concept of beauty. To love a
woman for her virtues is meaningless. She's
earned it, it's a payment, not a gift. But to
love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned
and undeserved. To love her for her vices is
to defile all virtue for her sake - and that is a
real tribute of love, because you sacrifice
your conscience, your reason, your integrity
and your invaluable self-esteem.
Like · 764
“ 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.
Ayn Rand
Like · 761
“ To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the

world. That's what everybody does every
hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your
soul - would you understand why that's
much harder?
Tags: compromise, life, self, soul
Like · 755
“ My happiness is not the means to any end.

It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own
purpose.
Ayn Rand, Anthem
Tags: happiness, inspirational, salvation
Like · 748
“ He is free to evade reality, he is free to

unfocus his mind and stumble blindly down
any road he pleases, but not free to avoid
the abyss he refuses to see.
Ayn Rand
Tags: inspirational
Like · 739
“ Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of

morality; there is no greater, nobler, more
heroic form of devotion than the act of a
man who assumes the responsibility of
thinking.
Like · 719
“ Never think of pain or danger or enemies a

moment longer than is necessary to fight
them.
Tags: atlas-shrugged
Like · 708
“ The truth is not for all men but only for

those who seek it.
Ayn Rand
Tags: truth
Like · 694
“ The man who refuses to judge, who neither

agrees nor disagrees, who declares that
there are no absolutes and believes that he
escapes responsibility, is the man
responsible for all the blood that is now
spilled in the world. Reality is an absolute,
existence is an absolute, a speck of dust is
an absolute and so is a human life. Whether
you live or die is an absolute. Whether you
have a piece of bread or not, is an absolute.
Whether you eat your bread or see it vanish
into a looter's stomach, is an absolute.
There are two sides to every issue: one side

is right and the other is wrong, but the
middle is always evil. The man who is wrong
still retains some respect for truth, if only by
accepting the responsibility of choice. But
the man in the middle is the knave who
blanks out the truth in order to pretend that
no choice or values exist, who is willing to
sit out the course of any battle, willing to
cash in on the blood of the innocent or to
crawl on his belly to the guilty, who
dispenses justice by condemning both the
robber and the robbed to jail, who solves
conflicts by ordering the thinker and the
fool to meet each other halfway. In any
compromise between food and poison, it is
only death that can win. In any compromise
between good and evil, it is only evil that
can profit. In that transfusion of blood
which drains the good to feed the evil, the
compromise is the transmitting rubber tube.
Tags: absolute, compromise, conflict-
resolution, evil, indecisiveness, judgement
Like · 643
“ 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.
Like · 615
“ Don't fool yourself, my dear. You're much

worse than a bitch. You're a saint. Which
shows why saints are dangerous and
undesirable.
Tags: insult, saints
Like · 584
“ 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.
Tags: life, men-and-women
Like · 582
“ 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.
Like · 582
“ Haven't I? - he thought. Haven't I thought of

it since the first time I saw you? Haven't I
thought of nothing else for two years? ...He
sat motionless, looking at her. He heard the
words he had never allowed himself to form,
the words he had felt, known, yet had not
faced, had hoped to destroy by never letting
them be said within his own mind. Now it
was as sudden and shocking as if he were
saying it to her ...Since the first time I saw
you ...Nothing but your body, that mouth of
yours, and the way your eyes would look at
me, if ...Through every sentence I ever said
to you, through every conference you
thought so safe, through the importance of
all the issues we discussed ...You trusted
me, didn't you? To recognize your
greatness? To think of you as you deserved -
as if you were a man? ...Don't you suppose I
know how much I've betrayed? The only
bright encounter of my life - the only person
I respected - the best business man I know -
my ally - my partner in a desperate battle
...The lowest of all desires - as my answer to
the highest I've met ...Do you know what I
am? I thought of it, because it should have
been unthinkable. For that degrading need,
which would never touch you, I have never
wanted anyone but you ...I hadn't known
what it was like, to want it, until I saw you
for the first time. I had thought : Not I, I
couldn't be broken by it ...Since then ...For
two years ...With not a moments respite
...Do you know what it's like, to want it?
Would you wish to hear what I thought
when I looked at you ...When I lay awake at
night ...When I hear your voice over a
telephone wire ...When I worked, but could
not drive it away? ...To bring you down to
things you cant conceive - and to know that
it's I who have done it. To reduce you to a
body, to teach you an animal's pleasure, to
see you need it, to see you asking me for it,
to see your wonderful spirit dependent on
the upon the obscenity of your need. To
watch you as you are, as you face the world
with your clean, proud strength - then to see
you, in my bed, submitting to any infamous
whim I may devise, to any act which I'll
preform for the sole purpose of watching
your dishonor and to which you'll submit for
the sake of an unspeakable sensation ...I
want you - and may I be damned for it!
Ayn Rand
Tags: love, passion, sex
Like · 564
“ She did not know the nature of her

loneliness. The only words that named it
were: This is not the world I expected.
Like · 560
“ You have been the one encounter in my life

that can never be repeated
Like · 545
“ If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.

Ayn Rand
Tags: excess, over-indulgence, overdoing
Like · 497
“ 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.
Tags: intelligence
Like · 473
“ Listen to what is being preached today.

Look at everyone around us. You've
wondered why they suffer, why they seek
happiness and never find it. If any man
stopped and asked himself whether he's
ever held a truly personal desire, he'd find
the answer. He'd see that all his wishes, his
efforts, his dreams, his ambitions are
motivated by other men. He's not really
struggling even for material wealth, but for
the second-hander's delusion - prestige. A
stamp of approval, not his own. He can find
no joy in the struggle and no joy when he
has succeeded. He can't say about a single
thing: 'This is what I wanted because I
wanted it, not because it made my
neighbors gape at me'. Then he wonders
why he's unhappy.
Tags: happiness, prestige
Like · 462
“ I love you so much that nothing can matter

to me - not even you...Only my love- not
your answer. Not even your indifference
Tags: love, obsession, selfish-love
Like · 445
“ 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.
Ayn Rand
Like · 444
“ Who is John Galt?

Tags: first-lines, galt, objectivism, opening-
lines, philosophy, taggart
Like · 415
“ I never found beauty in longing for the

impossible and never found the possible to
be beyond my reach.
Like · 413
“ What greater wealth is there than to own

your life and to spend it on growing? Every
living thing must grow. It can't stand still. It
must grow or perish.
Like · 407
“ It's easy to run to others. It's so hard to

stand on one's own record. You can fake
virtue for an audience. You can't fake it in
your own eyes. Your ego is your strictest
judge. They run from it. They spend their
lives running. It's easier to donate a few
thousand to charity and think oneself noble
than to base self-respect on personal
standards of personal achievement. It's
simple to seek substitutes for competence--
such easy substitutes: love, charm,
kindness, charity. But there is no substitute
for competence.
Tags: charity, competence, nobility, self-
respect, virtue
Like · 388
“ There’s nothing as significant as a human

face. Nor as eloquent. We can never really
know another person, except by our first
glance at him. Because, in that glance, we
know everything. Even though we’re not
always wise enough to unravel the
knowledge.
Tags: knowing, understanding
Like · 382
“ I am, therefore I'll think.

Ayn Rand
Like · 362
“ The purpose of morality is to teach you, not

to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and
live.
Ayn Rand
Tags: live-life
Like · 357
“ I worship individuals for their highest

possibilities as individuals and I loathe
humanity for its failure to live up to these
possibilities.
Ayn Rand
Tags: individuality
Like · 354
“ Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea.

Tags: ideas, integrity, moral-courage
Like · 351
“ But why should you care what people will

say? All you have to do is please yourself.
Ayn Rand
Tags: thought
Like · 339
“ Live and act within the limit of your

knowledge and keep expanding it to the
limit of your life.
Tags: life
Like · 338
“ When I disagree with a rational man, I let

reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he
will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us
will win, but both will profit.
Ayn Rand
Like · 323
“ There's no way to rule innocent men. The

only power any government has is the
power to crack down on criminals. Well,
when there aren't enough criminals, one
makes them. One declares so many things to
be a crime that it becomes impossible for
men to live without breaking laws.
Ayn Rand
Tags: crime, government, innocence, law,
libertarian
Like · 322
“ 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.
Like · 316
“ I would give the greatest sunset in the world

for one sight of New York's skyline.
Particularly when one can't see the details.
Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought
that made them. The sky over New York and
the will of man made visible. What other
religion do we need? And then people tell
me about pilgrimages to some dank
pesthole in a jungle where they go to do
homage to a crumbling temple, to a leering
stone monster with a pot belly, created by
some leprous savage. Is it beauty and genius
they want to see? Do they seek a sense of the
sublime? Let them come to New York, stand
on the shore of the Hudson, look and kneel.
When I see the city from my window - no, I
don't feel how small I am - but I feel that if a
war came to threaten this, I would throw
myself into space, over the city, and protect
these buildings with my body.
Tags: new-york, new-york-city
Like · 305
“ People create their own questions because

they are afraid to look straight. All you have
to do is look straight and see the road, and
when you see it, don't sit looking at it - walk.
Ayn Rand
Like · 298
“ There is no such thing as a lousy job - only

lousy men who don't care to do it.
Like · 296
“ I want you, Hank. I'm much more of an

animal than you think. I wanted you from
the first moment I saw you - and the only
thing I'm ashamed of is that I did not know
it. I did not know why, for two years, the
brightest moments I found were the ones in
your office, where I could lift my head to
look up at you. I did not know the nature of
what I felt in your presence, nor the reason.
I know it now. That is all I want, Hank. I
want you in my bed - and you are free of me
for all the rest of your time. There's nothing
you'll have to pretend - don't think of me,
don't feel; don't care - I do not want your
mind, your will, your being or your soul, so
long as it's to me you will come for that
lowest one of your desires. I am an animal
who wants nothing but the sensation of
pleasure which you despise - but I want it
from you. You'd give up amy height of virtue
for it , while I - I haven't any to give up.

Quotes by Ayn Rand (Author of Atlas Shrugged)

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Ayn Rand Quotes

“ [Dean] “My dear fellow, who will let you?”

[Roark] “That’s not the point. The point is,

“ Do not let your fire go out, spark by

“ If you don't know, the thing to do is not to

“ Learn to value yourself, which means: fight

“ I could die for you. But I couldn't, and

“ Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect

“ People think that a liar gains a victory over

“ Love is blind, they say; sex is impervious to

“ To say "I love you" one must know first how

“ A creative man is motivated by the desire to

“ I swear by my life and my love of it that I

“ Why do they always teach us that it's easy

“ The smallest minority on earth is the

“ I started my life with a single absolute: that

“ The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly

“ If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the

I…don't know. What…could he do? What

“ The man who does not value himself, cannot

“ A man's sexual choice is the result and the

“ Have you felt it too? Have you seen how

“ If you tell a beautiful woman that she is

“ Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you

“ To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the

“ My happiness is not the means to any end.

“ He is free to evade reality, he is free to

“ Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of

“ Never think of pain or danger or enemies a

“ The truth is not for all men but only for

“ The man who refuses to judge, who neither

There are two sides to every issue: one side

“ I regret nothing. There have been things I

“ Don't fool yourself, my dear. You're much

“ Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's

“ But you see," said Roark quietly, "I have,

“ Haven't I? - he thought. Haven't I thought of

“ She did not know the nature of her

“ You have been the one encounter in my life

“ If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.

“ Man cannot survive except through his

“ Listen to what is being preached today.

“ I love you so much that nothing can matter

“ A government is the most dangerous threat

“ Who is John Galt?

“ I never found beauty in longing for the

“ What greater wealth is there than to own

“ It's easy to run to others. It's so hard to

“ There’s nothing as significant as a human

“ I am, therefore I'll think.

“ The purpose of morality is to teach you, not

“ I worship individuals for their highest

“ Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea.

“ But why should you care what people will

“ Live and act within the limit of your

“ When I disagree with a rational man, I let

“ There's no way to rule innocent men. The

“ Run for your life from any man who tells

“ I would give the greatest sunset in the world

“ People create their own questions because

“ There is no such thing as a lousy job - only

“ I want you, Hank. I'm much more of an