Quotes from Ayn Rand

Since Objectivism requires the use of one's mind, those who attempt to take broad principles and apply them unthinkingly and indiscriminately to the concretes of their own existence find that it cannot be done. They are then compelled either to reject Objectivism or to apply it.

A sentence in Atlas Shrugged that is applicable to all rational people, but particularly to writers, is the one where I say that Dagny "regarded language as a tool of honor, always to be used as if one were under oath—an oath of allegiance to reality." In regard to words, this should be the motto of every writer.

IF YOU DON'T KNOW, THE THING TO DO IS NOT TO GET SCARED, BUT TO LEARN

remembered what he had said to Dominique once: "A complicated piece of machinery, such as our society ... and by pressing your little finger against one spot ... the center of all its gravity ... you can make the thing crumble into a worthless heap of scrap iron ...

He tried to avoid these thoughts. He had to stand on guard against his own feeling—as if some part of him had become a stranger that had to be kept numb, and his will had to be its constant, watchful anesthetic. That part was an unknown of which he knew only that he must never see its root and never give it voice. He had lived through one dangerous moment which he could not allow to return.

even pain can be confessed, but to confess happiness is to stand naked, delivered to the witness

Yo he aprendido que una mentira constituye un acto de autoabdicación, porque al mentir rendimos la propia realidad a la persona a quien se miente, convirtiéndola en dueña de una. Y a partir de entonces nos condenamos a fingir la clase de realidad que aquella persona requiere para ser engañada.

It was as if normal existence were a photograph of shapeless things in badly printed colors, but this was a sketch done in a few sharp strokes that made things seem clean, important—and worth doing.

a vague soil spread and ready from which friendships would spring.

He had once built his fortune, starting out with empty hands; now he had to rebuild his life, starting out with an empty spirit.

I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be earned.

the response he received was only a woman's acceptance of a casual pleasure, and he knew too clearly that what he had won had no meaning.

The wads of worthless paper money were growing heavier in the pockets of the nation, but there was less and less for that money to buy. In September, a bushel of wheat had cost eleven dollars; it had cost thirty dollars in November; it had cost one hundred in December; it was now approaching the price of two hundred—while the printing presses of the government treasury were running a race with starvation, and losing.

La integridad es la habilidad de ser fiel a una idea

Life, he thought, has been defined as motion; man's life was purposeful motion; what was the state of a being to whom purpose and motion were denied, a being held in chains but left to breathe and to see all the magnificence of the possibilities he could have reached, left to scream Why? and to be shown the muzzle of a gun as sole explanation? He shrugged, walking one; he did not care even to find an answer.

I'm going to protect him against you. I'll put you in your place. I'm Mrs. Taggart. I'm the woman in this family now." "That's quite all right," said Dagny. "I'm the man.

in the temple of his spirit, each man is alone.

Life, he thought, had been defined as motion; man's life was purposeful motion; what was the state of a being to whom purpose and motion were denied, a being held in chains but left to breathe and to see all the magnificence of the possibilities he could have reached, left to scream Why? and to be shown the muzzle of a gun as sole explanation? He shrugged, walking one; he did not care even to find an answer.

This is a pact, my dear. An alliance. Allies never trust each other, but that doesn't spoil their effectiveness. Our motives might be quite opposite. In fact, they are. But it doesn't matter. The result will be the same. It is not necessary to have a noble aim in common. It is necessary only to have a common enemy. We have.

A group, as such, has no rights. A man can neither acquire new rights by joining a group nor lose the rights which he does possess. The principle of individual rights is the only moral base of all groups or associations. Any group that does not recognize this principle is not an association, but a gang or a mob.

As a writer of the Romantic school, I would never be willing to transcribe a "real life" story, which would amount to evading the most important and most difficult part of creative writing: the construction of a plot. Besides, it would bore me to death. My view of what a good autobiography should be is contained in the title that Louis H. Sullivan gave to the story of his life: The Autobiography of an Idea.

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.

this was the simple essence of his universe: the instantaneous refusal to submit to disaster, the irresistible drive to fight it, the triumphant feeling of his own ability to win.

The only proper, moral purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence—to protect his right to his own life, to his own liberty, to his own property and to the pursuit of his own happiness. Without property rights, no other rights are possible.