Quotes about Individualism
You don't care what others think - which might be understandable. But you don't care even to make them think as you do? No. But that's...that's monstrous. Is it? Probably. I couldn't say.
— Ayn Rand
This, my body and spirit, this is the end of the quest. I wished to know the meaning of things. I am the meaning. I wished to find a warrant for being. I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.
— Ayn Rand
It's a law of survival, isn't it?—to seek the best. I didn't come for your sake. I came for mine.
— Ayn Rand
Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned
— Ayn Rand
The egotist in the absolute sense is not the man who sacrifices others. He is the man who stands above the need of using others in any manner. He does not function through them. He is not concerned with them in any primary matter. Not in his aim, not in his motive, not in his thinking, not in his desires, not in the source of his energy. He does not exist for any other man—and he asks no other man to exist for him.
— Ayn Rand
You'll get everything society can give a man. You'll keep all the money. You'll take any fame or honor anyone might want to grant. You'll accept such gratitude as the tenants might feel. And I—I'll take what nobody can give a man, except himself.
— Ayn Rand
The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so. May we be forgiven!
— Ayn Rand
The crowd had stared at him and given up angrily, finding no satisfaction. He did not look crushed and he did not look defiant. He looked impersonal and calm. He was not like a public figure in a public place; he was like a man alone in his own room, listening to the radio.
— Ayn Rand
Money is made—before it can be looted or mooched—made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced.
— Ayn Rand
HOWARD ROARK LAUGHED. He stood naked at the edge of a cliff. The lake lay far below him. A frozen explosion of granite burst in flight to the sky over motionless water. The water seemed immovable, the stone flowing. The stone had the stillness of one brief moment in battle when thrust meets thrust and the currents are held in a pause more dynamic than motion. The stone glowed, wet with sunrays.
— Ayn Rand
If you believe that you have the right to force me—use your guns openly. I will not help you to disguise the nature of your action.
— Ayn Rand
And, after all, you've got to live." "Not that way," said Roark.
— Ayn Rand