The quotations of

Ayn Rand

Russian-born American writer and public philosopher

1905–1982

17 quotes, most often on Morality, Economics and Race.

If devotion to truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking…the alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind.
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
- Politics
The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.
- Success
So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?
Atlas Shrugged (1957), Chapter Two: The Aristocracy of Pull, p. 410; Francisco d’Anconia to Bertram Scudder
- Money
What do you know and how do you know it?
- Philosophy
The most depraved type of being is that without purpose.
Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday… The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production.
The Ayn Rand Letter (1971–1976)
- America
- Thanksgiving
I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.
Anthem (1937)
- Freedom
Honor is self-esteem made visible in action.
The Ayn Rand Letter (1971–1976)
- Honor
Some day, the world will discover that, without thought, there can be no love.
Apollo and Dionysus (1969)
- Love
- Thinking
Errors of knowledge are not breaches of morality; no proper moral code can demand infallibility or omniscience.
The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
- Knowledge
- Morality
Competition is a by-product of productive work, not its goal. A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
The Ayn Rand Letter (1971–1976)
- Motivation & Goals
- Work
The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966)
- Good & Evil
- Morality
When I say “capitalism,” I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism⁠—with a separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.
The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
- Economics
- Government
Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.
The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
- Race

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