I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone’s right to one minute of my life.

Do it first and feel about it afterwards.

Guilt is a rope that wears thin.

The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them

Every man is free to rise as far as he’s able or willing, but the degree to which he thinks determines the degree to which he’ll rise.

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.

The more you learn, the more you know that you know nothing.

Toohey: “Mr. Roark, we’re alone here. Why don’t you tell me what you think of me? In any words you wish. No one will hear us.” Roark: “But I don’t think of you

Worry is a waste of emotional reserve

People want nothing but mirrors around them. To reflect them while they’re reflecting too … Reflections of reflections and echoes of echoes. No beginning and no end. No center and no purpose.

No speech is ever considered, but only the speaker. It’s so much easier to pass judgement on a man than on an idea.

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

Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Don’t think. Believe. Trust your heart, not your brain. Don’t think. Feel. Believe

The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt.

If one doesn’t respect oneself one can have neither love nor respect for others.

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.

In a free society, one does not have to deal with those who are irrational. One is free to avoid them.

Every form of happiness is private. Our greatest moments are personal, self-motivated, not to be touched”

There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.

For the first time since her return, she felt pain, a violent pain, but it made her feel alive, because it was worth feeling.

I am. I think. I will.

Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death.

A viler evil than to murder a man, is to sell him suicide as an act of virtue.

It was the greatest sensation of existence: not to trust but to know.

When I die I hope to go to heaven–whatever that is–and I want to be able to afford the price of admission

Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants.

The man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

I don’t wish to be the symbol of anything. I’m only myself.

Is it advisable to spread out all the conveniences of culture before people to whom a few steps up a stair to a library is a sufficient deterrent from reading?

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

Never ask people about your work

But you see, the measure of hell you’re able to endure is the measure of your love

The most depraved type of human being is the man without a purpose.

Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artists metaphysical value judgments

What is morality, she asked. Judgement to distinguish right and wrong, vision to see the truth, and courage to act upon it, dedication to that which is good, integrity to stand by the good at any price.

She thought how strange it would be if she ever said ‘Hello’ to him. One did not greet oneself each morning.

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

Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone

He liked to observe emotions; they were like red lanterns strung along the dark unknown of another’s personality, marking vulnerable points

Within the extent of your knowledge, you are right.

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

One loses everything when one loses one’s sense of humor.

I take no pride in hopeless longing; I wouldn’t hold a stillborn aspiration. I’d want to have it, to make it, to live it.

Self respect is something that can’t be killed. The worst thing is to kill a man’s pretense at it.

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

Men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.

I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.

It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live.

But I don’t think of you.

What is man? He’s just a collection of chemicals with delusions of grandeur.

Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.

She knew that even pain can be confessed, but to confess happiness is to stand naked, delivered to the witness.

Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?

Joy is the goal of existence, and joy is not to be stumbled upon, but to be achieved, and the act of treason is to let its vision drown in the swamp of the moment’s torture.

Rationalization is a process of not perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one’s emotions.

If one’s actions are honest, one does not need the predated confidence of others.

There is no such thing as a lousy job – only lousy men who don’t care to do it.

Patience is always rewarded and romance is always round the corner!

Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea.

Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter

People create their own questions because they are afraid to look straight. All you have to do is look straight and see the road, and when you see it, don’t sit looking at it – walk.

When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us will win, but both will profit.

But why should you care what people will say? All you have to do is please yourself.

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.

I think, therefore I’ll think.

The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live

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

I love you so much that nothing can matter to me – not even you…Only my love- not your answer. Not even your indifference

I never found beauty in longing for the impossible and never found the possible to be beyond my reach

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.

You have been the one encounter in my life that can never be repeated

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing

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

To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That’s what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul – would you understand why that’s much harder?

Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

Don’t fool yourself, my dear. You’re much worse than a bitch. You’re a saint. Which shows why saints are dangerous and undesirable.

Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.

Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking

The truth is not for all men but only for those who seek it.

My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.

Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.

He is free to evade reality, he is free to unfocus his mind and stumble blindly down any road he pleases, but not free to avoid the abyss he refuses to see.

Have you felt it too? Have you seen how your best friends love everything about you- except the things that count? And your most important is nothing to them; nothing, not even a sound they can recognize.

The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.

The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.

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

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities

I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine

To say “I love you” one must know first how to say the “I”.

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

Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.

I could die for you. But I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, live for you.

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

If you don’t know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn

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