" 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. The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap.
It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.
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.
Do not ever say that the desire to “do good” by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.
Government “help” to business is just as disastrous as government persecution… the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.
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.
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.
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.
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws
The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself- and live.
The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.
Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.
You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.
The question isn’t 'who is going to let me'; it’s
'who is going to stop me?' "
Ayn Rand quotes