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Inspirational Quotes by Ayn Rand

80 Inspirational quotes by Ayn Rand

All Inspirational quotes Ayn Rand’s page

Ayn Rand argues that capitalism is the system for the future and that work is a form of philosophy. She says freedom means asking, expecting, and depending on nothing, while ideas hold the most practical power. Her words also stress the need for purpose to control one’s life.

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You love only those who deserve it.

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We have come to see how great is the unexplored.

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All work is an act of philosophy.

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I am a man who does not exist for others.

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Great men can't be ruled.

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Never ask people about your work.

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It is not fools that I seek to address.

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A free mind and a free market are corollaries.

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Learn to distinguish the difference between errors of knowledge and breaches of morality

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I am interested in politics so that one day I will not have to be interested in politics.

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I hold that such a question can never arise except in a society of cannibals.

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Freedom of association includes the freedom not to associate.

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The desire not to be anything is the desire not to be.

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

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No one's happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to destroy.

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You can ignore reality, but you can't ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.

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It is morally obscene to regard wealth as an anonymous, tribal product and to talk about 'redistributing' it.

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

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“Life is achievement…Give yourself an aim, something you want to do, then go after it, breaking through everything, with nothing in mind…

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Ideas, in a free society, are not a crime- and neither can they serve as the justification of a crime.

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“He is free to evade reality, he is free to unfocus his mind and stumble blindly down any road he pleases, but…

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“Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and…

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The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life.

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Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?

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Man—every man—is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither…

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“She could not descend to an existence where her brain would explode under the pressure of forcing itself not to outdistance incompetence.…

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“Wheeling his bicycle by his side, the boy took the narrow path down the slope of the hill to the valley and…

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“Why is it so important - what others have done? Why does it become sacred by the mere fact of not being…

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“I think of man's magnificent capacity that created this ship to conquer all that senseless space. When I look at mountain peaks,…

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“Do not let the hero in your soul parish, in lonely frustration, for the life you deserved but never have been able…

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Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live-that productive work is the process by…

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“Rationality is man's basic virtue, the source of all his other virtues. Man's basic vice, the source of all evils, is the…

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“Do you know the hallmark of a second rater? It's resentment of another man's achievement. Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest…

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“In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are at its worst. In the…

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Kant is the most evil man in mankind's history.

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I don’t approve of religion.

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Do not let your fire go out.

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Do not let the hero in your soul perish...

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I think, therefore I'll think.

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“We are nothing mankind is all”

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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.