To say 'I love you' one must first be able to say the 'I.'
Ayn RandRead
The government was set to protect man from criminals-and the constitution was written to protect man from the government. The Bill of Rights was not directed at private citizens, but against the government-as an explicit declaration that individual rights supersede any public or social power.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of individual rights and the role of government in protecting those rights against potential tyranny.
Ayn Rand highlights the fundamental purpose of government, which is to safeguard individuals from criminal acts while simultaneously warning of the danger of governmental overreach. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights serve as safeguards to ensure that individual liberties remain paramount and are not compromised by the authority of the state.
Themes
GovernmentIndividual RightsConstitutionFreedomProtection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the role of government in civil liberties at a public forum.
More from Ayn Rand
All quotes →The difference between animals and humans is that animals change themselves for the environment, but humans change the environment for themselves.
Ayn RandRead
It is my eyes which see, and the sight of my eyes grants beauty to the earth. It is my ears which hear, and the hearing of my ears gives its song to the world. It is my mind which thinks, and the judgement of my mind is the only searchlight that can find the truth. It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is the only edict I must respect.
Ayn RandRead
What is the basic, the essential, the crucial principle that differentiates freedom from slavery? It is the principle of voluntary action versus physical coercion or compulsion.
Ayn RandRead
One method of destroying a concept is by diluting its meaning. Observe that by ascribing rights to the unborn, i.e., the nonliving, the anti-abortionists obliterate the rights of the living.
Ayn RandRead
I think that when in doubt about the truth of an issue, it's safer and in better taste to select the least numerous of the adversaries.
Ayn RandRead
Similar quotes
War both needs and generates certain virtues; not the highest, but what may be called the preliminary virtues, as valor, veracity, the spirit of obedience, the habit of discipline. Any of these, and of others like them, when possessed by a nation, and no matter how generated, will give them a military advantage, and make them more likely to stay in the race of nations.
Walter BagehotRead
THIS law of nature, being co-eval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.
William BlackstoneRead
pg.9 "In my heart there's a peaceful anguish, and my calm is made of resignation.
Fernando PessoaRead
I am seized with an abiding fear regarding what these two instruments are doing to our society, our culture and our heritage. Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live.
Edward R. MurrowRead
The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others.
James A. BaldwinRead
We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.
William JamesRead