Ayn Rand

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

Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.

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.

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

So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?

Money is the barometer of a society's virtue.

Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think.

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).

When man learns to understand and control his own behavior as well as he is learning to understand and control the behavior of crop plants and domestic animals, he may be justified in believing that he has become civilized.

The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap.

The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt.

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.

Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death.