Quotes from Ayn Rand

Competition is a by-product of productive work, not its goal.

Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live.

Any work is creative work if done by a thinking mind.

If a dedication page were to precede the total of my work, it would read: To the glory of Man.

Never ask people about your work.

I dont work with collectives. I don't consult, i don't co-operate, I don't collaborate.

I don't build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build.

The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence.

A gun is not an argument.

Art is inextricably tied to man's survival - not to his physical survival, but to that on which his physical survival depends: to the preservation and survival of his consciousness.

It [ballet] projects a fragile kind of strength and a certain inflexible precision.

Beauty is a sense of harmony.

Evil requires the sanction of the victim.

Anything may be betrayed, anyone may be forgiven, but not those who lack the courage of their own greatness.

Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.

Art is the indispensable medium for the communication of a moral ideal.

If one's actions are honest, one does not need the predated confidence of others.

When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is.

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

To know one's own desires, their meaning and their costs requires the highest human virtue: rationality.

A 'whim' is a desire experienced by a person who does not know and does not care to discover its cause.

Worry is a waste of emotional reserve".

To fear to face an issue is to believe that the worst is true.

... reason accepts no commandments.