Quotes About Ayn Rand

She had ordered him out of her office, and had sat in incredulous horror before the fact that the most vicious statement she had ever heard had been uttered in a tone of moral righteousness.

Wynand's face was more than the face of a stranger: a stranger's face is an unapproached potentiality, to be opened if one makes the choice and effort; this was a face known, closed and never to be reached again.

But Dr. Stadler, this book was not intended to be read by scientists. It was written for that drunken lout. What do you mean? For the general public. But, good God! The feeblest imbecile should be able to see the glaring contradictions in every one of your statements. Let us put it this way, Dr. Stadler. The man who doesn't see that, deserves to believe all my statements.

What glory can there be in the conquest of a mindless body?

She had set out to break him, as if, unable to equal his value, she could surpass it by destroying it, as if the measure of his greatness would thus become the measure of hers, as if the vandal who smashed a statue were greater than the artist who had made it, as if the murderer who killed a child were greater than the mother who had given it birth.

This was the great clarity of being beyond emotion, after the reward of having felt everything one could feel.

She marveled at the futility of his method: he was acting as if, by naming her opinion in advance, he would make her unable to alter it.

She fought it. She recovered. Years helped her to reach the day when she could face her memories indifferently, then the day when she felt no necessity to face them. It was finished and of no concern to her any longer. She had won the battle against her memories. But one form of torture remained, untouched by the years, the torture of the word why?

If joy is the aim and the core of existence, she thought, and if that which has the power to give one joy is always guarded as one's deepest secret, then they had seen each other naked in that moment.

I am in full agreement with the facts of everything said about me in the newspapers—with the facts, but not with the evaluation.

Tension seemed natural to her, not a sign of anxiety, but a sign of enjoyment...

If I can't, then that would make it an absolute and you said there aren't any absolutes." "That's different." "How is it different?" "It's the government." "You mean, there aren't any absolutes except the government?" "I mean, if they say it's important, then it is.

Plot is a primitive vulgarity in literature," said Balph Eubank contemptuously.

This is pity, he thought, and then he lifted his head in wonder. He thought that there must be something terribly wrong with a world in which this monstrous feeling is called a virtue.

The joke is on both of you. Your sanction is the only source of certainty he has.

But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted—and you create a nation of lawbreakers—and then you cash in on guilt.

every living thing is integrated. Do you know what that means? Whole, pure, complete, unbroken. Do you know what constitutes an integrating principle? A thought. The one thought, the single thought that created the thing and every part of it. The thought which no one can change or touch.

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.

Their terror had the evasive quality of guilt: it was not the fear that comes from understanding, but from the refusal to understand.

dangers, to Francisco, were merely opportunities for another brilliant performance; there were no battles he could lose, no enemies to beat him.

No battle was hard, no decision was dangerous where there was no soggy uncertainty, no shapeless evasion to encounter.

I really believe that a building is a unit, not a city, so that city planning should not control all buildings. Because a house can be the product of one man, but a city cannot. And nothing collective can have the unity and integrity of a "unit.")

Consistency is not a habit of mind which it is wise to practice or to expect of the human race.

She felt an odd, light-hearted indifference, as if she suddenly wanted nothing but the comfort of surrendering to helplessness.