Skip to content

Reason Quotes by Ayn Rand

84 Reason quotes by Ayn Rand

All Reason quotes Ayn Rand’s page

A rational man is guided by his thinking, not just by feelings, as the quotes say. They argue that reason makes the use of force a moral duty when defending against evil, and they claim that fighting for reason, not religion, is their purpose. The verses also question why anyone should be forced to keep others safe.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

...if men are to be ruled, then the enemy is reason.

Image

... reason accepts no commandments.

Image

A rational process is a moral process.

Image

There is only one source of authentic self-confidence: reason.

Image

“To a life; which is reason unto itself.”

Image

When men abandon reason, physical force becomes their only means of dealing with one another and of settling disagreements.

Image

What is greatness? I will answer: it is the capacity to live by the three fundamental values of John Galt: reason, purpose,…

Image

Nobody has ever given a reason why men should be their brother's keepers.

Image

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

Image

I am an intransigent atheist, though not a militant one. This means that I am not fighting against religion - I am…

Image

A rational man is guided by his thinking - by a process of Reason - not by his feelings and desires.

Image

“Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it.”

Image

The moral is the chosen, not the forced; the understood, not the obeyed. The moral is the rational, and reason accepts no…

Image

Since reason is man’s basic means of survival, that which is proper to the life of a rational being is the good;…

Image

Politically, the goal of today’s dominant trend is statism. Philosophically, the goal is the obliteration of reason; psychologically, it is the erosion…

Image

“To irrational principles, one cannot be loyal. Ideas that are not derived from reality cannot be consistently practiced in reality. --as quoted…

Image

Man needs knowledge in order to survive, and only reason can achieve it; men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason,…

Image

A rational mind does not work under compulsion; it does not subordinate its grasp of reality to anyone's orders, directives, or controls;…

Image

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of…

Image

He despised causeless affection, just as he despised unearned wealth. They professed to love him for some unknown reason and they ignored…

Image

When a man feels fear without reason, you call him to the attention of a psychiatrist; you are not so careful to…

Image

Whenever anyone accuses some person of being 'unfeeling,' he means that that person is just. He means that that person has no…

Image

The Middle Ages were an era of mysticism, ruled by blind faith and blind obedience to the dogma that faith is superior…

Image

If you get caught at some crucial point and somebody tells you that your doctrine doesn't make sense - you're ready for…

Image

In western civilization, the period ruled by mysticism is known as the 'Dark Ages' and the 'Middle Ages'. I will assume that…

Image

Those who tell you that man is unable to perceive a reality undistorted by his senses, mean that they are unwilling to…

Image

Government control of the economy, no matter in whose behalf, has been the source of all the evils in our industrial society…

Image

Or did you say it's the love of money that's the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know…

Image

If you want to know the one reason that's taking me back, I'll tell you: I cannot bring myself to abandon to…

Image

There must be only three supreme values which govern a person's life: Reason, Purpose, and Self-esteem. Reason, as his only tool of…

Image

“Thinking is man’s only basic virtue, from which all the others proceed. And his basic vice, the source of all his evils,…

Image

The good, say the mystics of spirit, is God, a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to…

Image

The necessary consequence of man's right to life is his right to self-defense. In a civilized society, force may be used only…

Image

“But here you might have noticed something. I said, ‘It stands to reason’. Do you see ? Men have a weapon against…

Image

I cannot project the degree of hatred required to make those women run around in crusades against abortion. Hatred is what they…

Image

If he can give his readers no reason why they should read his book, except that the events happened to him, it…

Image

Aquinas brought an Aristotelian view of reason back into European culture, and lighted the way toward the Renaissance.

Image

Truth is the recognition of reality; reason, man's only means of knowledge, is his only standard of truth.

Image

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

Image

My morality, the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom: existence exists - and in a single choice: to live.

Image

Other authors on Reason

More by Ayn Rand

There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.

She watched the prairies the rivers, the towns slipping past at an untouchable distance below - and she noted that the sense of detachment…

“This was reality, she thought, this sense of clear outlines, of purpose, of lightness, of hope.”

A “collective” mind does not exist. It is merely the sum of endless numbers of individual minds. If we have an endless number of…

Lobbying' is the activity of attempting to influence legislation by privately influencing the legislators. It is the result and creation of a mixed economy-of…

“She moved her hand and let it rest against his. He did not withdraw his fingers and he did not pretend indifference. She bent…

This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before.

“There was still one response, the greatest, that she had missed. She thought: To find a feeling that would hold, as their sum, as…

Inflation is not caused by the actions of private citizens, but by the government: by an artificial expansion of the money supply required to…

“We are fornicating in the sight of six billion people.”

“She was fifteen when it occurred to her for the first time that women did not run railroads and that people might object. To…

Fransisco, you're some kind of very high nobility, aren't you?" He answered, "Not yet. The reason my family has lasted for such a long…

Have you felt it too? Have you seen how your best friends love everything about you- except the things that count? And your most…

Every coercive monopoly was created by government intervention into the economy: by special privileges, such as franchises or subsidies, which closed the entry of…

We are all brothers under the skin - and I, for one, would be willing to skin humanity to prove it.