Picture of Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand

Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum

Writer, Philosopher

(1905 - 1982)

Philosophers Writers
Filter
Filter by Nationality
Only show quotes from authors with the selected nationalities
Selection description

Current filters will include all authors.

Filter by Occupation
Only show quotes from authors with the selected occupations
Selection description

Current filters will include all authors.

Filter by Era
Only show quotes from authors who were alive between the set years (use negative number for BCE)
Selection description

Current filters will include all authors.

avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Man is the only living species that has the power to act as his own destroyer - and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.
Destroying - Man
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

and he said her name to fill the space of five years.
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Kant is the most evil man in mankind's history.
Man - Mankind
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Money is the barometer of a society's virtue.
Money - Society - Virtue
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Look around you and look at history. You will see the achievements of man’s mind. You will see man’s unlimited potentiality for greatness, and the faculty that makes it possible. You will see that man is not a helpless monster by nature, but he becomes one when he discards that faculty: his mind. And if you ask me, what is greatness? I will answer, it is the capacity to live by the three fundamental values of John Galt: reason, purpose, self-esteem.
Achievement - Answers - Greatness - Man - Mindset - Monster - Oneself - Purpose - Reason - Value
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”-not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form-by giving presents to one's friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .
Benevolence - Charm - Facts - Friendship - Giving - Happiness - Novel - Remembering
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Creation comes before distribution -- or there will be nothing to distribute.
Creativity - Politics
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Your emotional capacity is an empty motor, and your values are the fuel with which your mind fills it. If you choose a mix of contradictions, it will clog your motor, corrode your transmission and wreck you on your first attempt to move with a machine which you, the driver, have corrupted.
Drive - Emotions - Emptiness - Machine - Mindset - Movement - Value
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Capitalism has been called nationalistic - yet it is the only system that banished ethnicity, and made it possible, in the United States, for men of various, formerly antagonistic nationalities to live together in peace.
Capitalism - Ethnicity - Making - Man - Nationalism - Nationality - Politics - State - Together - Unions
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Ethics is a code of values which guide our choices and actions and determine the purpose and course of our lives.
Actions - Change - Choice - Ethics - Purpose - Value
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

The man who produces while others dispose of his product is a slave.
Capitalism - Freedom - Libertarian - Liberty - Man - Product - Production - Slavery
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

I agree that [marriage] should be treated like a business deal. But every business deal has to have its own terms and its own kind of currency.
Agreeing - Deal - Kindness
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

I can say-not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological , ethical, political and esthetic roots-that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.
America - Countries - Ethics - Morals - Original - Patriotism - Politics - Principle - State - Unions - World
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Nobody has ever given a reason why men should be their brother's keepers.
Giving - Man - Reason
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value.
Ability - Deal - Giving - Good - Man - Principle - Production - Trade - Value - Wishing
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

One can't love man without hating most of the creatures who pretend to bear his name.
Creativity - Hate - Life - Man
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

It is the basic, metaphysical fact of man's nature -- the connection between his survival and his use of reason -- that capitalism recognizes and protects.
Capitalism - Facts - Man - Protecting - Reason - Survival
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

The concept of individual rights is so prodigious a feat of political thinking that few men grasp it fully - and two hundred years have not been enough for other countries to understand it. But this is the concept to which we owe our lives - the concept which made it possible for us to bring into reality everything of value that any of us did or will achieve or experience.
Achievement - Countries - Enough - Individual - Making - Man - Politics - Prodigy - Reality - Right - Thinking - Value
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

It is futile to fight against, if one does not know what one is fighting for.
Capitalism - Fighting - Freedom - Futility - History - Judging - Knowledge - Law - Liberty - Peace - Propaganda - Truth - War
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

The symbol of all relationships among such men, the moral symbol of respect for human beings, is the trader. We, who live by values, not by loot, are traders, both in matter and in spirit. A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved.
Giving - Human - Man - Morals - Spirits - Trade - Value
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

He stepped to the window and pointed to the skyscrapers of the city. He said that we had to extinguish the lights of the world, and when we would see the lights of New York go out, we would know that our job was done.
Jobs - World
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

What is kinder--to believe the best of people and burden them with a nobility beyond their endurance--or to see them as they are, and accept it because it makes them comfortable?
Accept - Belief - Burden - Endurance - Nobility - People
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Great men can't be ruled.
Man
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

The right to life means that a man has the right to support his life by his own work (on any economic level, as high as his ability will carry him); it does not mean that others must provide him with the necessities of life.
Ability - Economy - Life - Man - Meaning - Novel - Providing - Right - Support - Work
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.
Capitalism - Libertarian - Liberty - Man - Mastering - Politics - Rational - Reason - Sacrifice - Slavery - Speaking
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Under the antitrust laws, a man becomes a criminal from the moment he goes into business, no matter what he does. If he complies with one of these laws, he faces criminal prosecution under several others. For instance, if he charges prices which some bureaucrats judge as too high, he can be prosecuted for monopoly or for a successful 'intent to monopolize'; if he charges prices lower than those of his competitors, he can be prosecuted for 'unfair competition' or 'restraint of trade'; and if he charges the same prices as his competitors, he can be prosecuted for 'collusion' or 'conspiracy.'
Bureaucracy - Compete - Conspiracy - Crime - Judging - Law - Man - Monopoly - Prosecution - Success - Trade - Unfairness
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Just as man's physical existence was liberated when he grasped that 'nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed', so his consciousness will be liberated when grasps that nature, to be apprehended, must be obeyed - that the rules of cognition must be derived from the nature of existence and the nature, the identity, of his cognitive faculty.
Consciousness - Existence - Identity - Liberty - Man - Philosophy
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Whoever claims the right to redistribute the wealth produced by others is claiming the right to treat human beings as chattel.
Capitalism - Human - Liberty - Money - Novel - Politics - Right - Socialism - Wealth
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing.
Countries - Peace - War
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

God... a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive.
Faith - Literature - Man - Religion - Wit
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

I am opposed to all forms of control; I am for an absolute laissez faire, free, unregulated economy. I am for the separation of the state and economics, just as we had separation of state and church, which led to peaceful coexistence among different religions...so the same applies to economics. If you separate the government from economics, if you do not regulate production and trade, you will have peaceful cooperation, and harmony and justice among men.
Capitalism - Cooperation - Economy - Government - Harmony - Judging - Liberty - Man - Production - State - Trade
Share as Image
avatar

Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

There are only two means by which men can deal with one another: guns or logic. Force or persuasion. Those who know that they cannot win by means of logic, have always resorted to guns.
Deal - Economy - Force - Guns - Liberty - Logic - Man - Meaning - Persuasion - Winning
Share as Image

Privacy Policy | Update cookies preferences

Quotes displayed on quote11.com do not necessarily represent the views of the owners or developers.