Ayn Rand

"[F]rom the initial outline Ayn Rand provided, a very rich and powerful philosophy emerges – e.g., it solves such problems as science versus free will and moral responsibility, knowledge versus the fact of fallibility. Merely because Rands ideas were not born in academe or developed in full detail by her, it cannot be concluded that they are unsound."

"There is only one thing that matters and that well remember. The rest doesnt matter. I dont care what life is to be nor what it does to us. But it wont break us. Neither you nor me. Thats our only weapon. Thats the only banner we can hold against all those others around us. Thats all we have to know about the future."

"When a man declares: "There are no blacks and whites [in morality]" he is making a psychological confession, and what he means is: "I am unwilling to be wholly good—and please dont regard me as wholly evil!"

"A moment or an eternity—did it matter? Life, undefeated, existed and could exist. She smiled, her last smile, to so much that had been possible."

"Objectivism is a philosophical movement; since politics is a branch of philosophy, Objectivism advocates certain political principles — specifically, those of laissez-faire capitalism — as the consequence and the ultimate practical application of its fundamental philosophical principles. It does not regard politics as a separate or primary goal, that is: as a goal that can be achieved without a wider ideological context. . . . Objectivists are not "conservatives." We are radicals for capitalism; we are fighting for that philosophical base which capitalism did not have and without which it was doomed to perish."

"Observe, in politics, that the term extremism has become a synonym of "evil," regardless of the content of the issue (the evil is not what you are extreme about, but that you are "extreme"—i.e., consistent)."

"There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide."

"That particular sense of sacred rapture men say they experience in contemplating nature- Ive never received it from nature, only from. Buildings, Skyscrapers. I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New Yorks skyline. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need? And then people tell me about pilgrimages to some dank pest-hole in a jungle where they go to do homage to a crumbling temple, to a leering stone monster with a pot belly, created by some leprous savage. Is it beauty and genius they want to see? Do they seek a sense of the sublime? Let them come to New York, stand on the shore of the Hudson, look and kneel. When I see the city from my window - no, I dont feel how small I am - but I feel that if a war came to threaten this, I would like to throw myself into space, over the city, and protect these buildings with my body."

"Do you believe in God, Andrei? No. Neither do I. But thats a favorite question of mine. An upside-down question, you know. What do you mean? Well, if I asked people whether they believed in life, theyd never understand what I meant. Its a bad question. It can mean so much that it really means nothing. So I ask them if they believe in God. And if they say they do—then, I know they dont believe in life. Why? Because, you see, God—whatever anyone chooses to call God—is ones highest conception of the highest possible. And whoever places his highest conception above his own possibility thinks very little of himself and his life. Its a rare gift, you know, to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your very own. To imagine a heaven and then not to dream of it, but to demand it."

"An individualist is a man who says: "Ill not run anyones life – nor let anyone run mine. I will not rule nor be ruled. I will not be a master nor a slave. I will not sacrifice myself to anyone – nor sacrifice anyone to myself."

"An artist reveals his naked soul in his work - and so, gentle reader, do you when you respond to it."

"The trouble with the world today is philosophical: only the right philosophy can save us. But this party plagiarizes some of my ideas, mixes them with the exact opposite—with religionists, anarchists and every intellectual misfit and scum they can find—and call themselves libertarians and run for office."