Ayn Rand

Guilt is a rope that wears thin.
Ayn Rand - From the article "Art and Sense of Life" in The Romantic Manifesto
An artist does not fake reality--he *stylizes* it.
Ayn Rand - Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal p. 42
If men want to oppose war, it is *statism* that they must oppose.

Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday...The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it.

I can accept anthing, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged, 1957
James, you ought to discover some day that words have an exact meaning.
Ayn Rand - Anthem
The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them.

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.
Ayn Rand - Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, 1966
The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.
Ayn Rand - The Romantic Manifesto
Art is the indespensible medium for the communication of a moral idea.

Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns--or dollars. Take your choice--there is no other.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it.
Ayn Rand - The Virtue of Selfishness, 1964
The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence.

He had a big head and a face so ugly it became almost fascinating.

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.

Doctors are not servants of their patients, they are traders like everyone else in a free society and they should bear that title proudly considering the crucial importance of the services they offer.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Love is our response to our highest values. Love is self-enjoyment. The noblest love is born out of admiration of another?s values.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and finds his joy in nothing buy rational actions.
Ayn Rand - Anthem, 1946
I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
He was guilty of nothing, except that he earned his own fortune and never forgot that it was his.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Honesty is the recognition of the fact that the unreal is unreal and can have no value, that neither love nor fame nor cash is a value if obtained by fraud.
Ayn Rand - The Romantic Manifesto p. 74 (pb 93)
A good novel is an indivisible sum; every scene, sequence and passage of a good novel has to involve, contribute to and advance all three of its major attributes: theme, plot, characterization.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplacable 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 and leave only frustration for the life you deserved, but never have been able to reach. The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man?s values, it has to be earned.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
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.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged, 1957
The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged, 1957
It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.

Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

- Ayn Rand