Ayn Rand

In a capitalist society, all human relationships are voluntary. Men are free to cooperate or not, to deal with one another or not, as their own individual judgments, convictions and interests dictate.

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.

To deal with men by force is as impractical as to deal with nature by persuasion.

It is true that the welfare-statists are not socialists, that they never advocated or intended the socialization of private property, that they want to 'preserve' private property-with government control of its use and disposal. But that is the fundamental characteristic of fascism.

One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary.

The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time.

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority.

An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced.

This is the age othe common man, they tell us-a title which any man may claim to the extent osuch distinction as he has managed not to achieve.

Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing.

Value is that which one acts to gain and/or keep. Virtue is the act by which one aims and/or keeps it.

Words are a lens to focus one's mind.

There's nothing of any importance in life-except how well you do your work.

I am interested in politics so that one day I will not have to be interested in politics.

Action without thought is mindlessness, and thought without action is hypocritical.

The man who produces while others dispose of his product is a slave.

Political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries.

It stands to reason that if sacrifices are being given, somebody is collecting sacrifices.

That time and those people are upon you!

Do not make the mistake of the ignorant who think that an individualist is a man who says: “I’ll do as I please at everybody else’s expense.” An individualist is a man who recognizes the inalienable individual rights of man—his own and those of others.

The pressure disappeared with the first word he put on paper. He thought--while his hand moved rapidly--what a power there was in words; later, for those who heard them, but first for the one who found them; a healing power, a solution, like the breaking of a barrier. He thought, perhaps the basic secret the scientists have not discovered, the first fount of life, is that which happens when a thought takes shape in words.