Best of Ayn Rand quotes

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."

“Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness.”

“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”

 “If you don't know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.”  
  - Atlas Shrugged

 “I started my life with a single absolute: that the world was mine to shape in the image of my highest values and never to be given up to a lesser standard, no matter how long or hard the struggle.”

“You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.”

“Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.” 
- Atlas Shrugged

“A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.” 

“I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals and I loathe humanity for its failure to live up to these possibilities.”

“She did not know the nature of her loneliness. The only words that named it were: This is not the world I expected.”

“What greater wealth is there than to own your life and to spend it on growing? Every living thing must grow. It can't stand still. It must grow or perish.”
-  Atlas Shrugged

“Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life.” 
-  Atlas Shrugged

“There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.” 
-  Atlas Shrugged

“Men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.” 
- The Virtue of selfishness

“Self-sacrifice? But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed.”
- The Fountainhead

“Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be left waiting for us in our graves-or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.”
-  Atlas Shrugged

“It is not advisable to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.” 

-  Atlas Shrugged

“Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind. ”

-  Atlas Shrugged

“A rational man never distorts or corrupts his own standards and judgment in order to appeal to the irrationality, stupidity, or dishonesty of others.”  
- Atlas Shrugged

“In a free society, one does not have to deal with those who are irrational. One is free to avoid them.”  
- The Virtue of selfishness

“But there are people who'll try to hurt you through the good they see in you--knowing that it's the good, needing it and punishing you for it. Don't let it break you when you discover that.” 

-  Atlas Shrugged