The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort.
Ayn RandWe have only two sources of information about the character of the people around us: we judge them by what they do and by what they say (particularly the first).
Ayn RandSerenity comes from the ability to say โYesโ to existence. Courage comes from the ability to say โNoโ to the wrong choices made by others.
Ayn RandOnly the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth, the man who would make his fortune no matter where he started.
Ayn RandMan cannot survive except through his mind. He comes on earth unarmed. His brain is his only weapon. Animals obtain food by force. man had no claws, no fangs, no horns, no great strength of muscle. He must plant his food or hunt it. To plant, he needs a process of thought. To hunt, he needs weapons,and to make weapons - a process of thought. From this simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and we have comes from a single attribute of man -the function of his reasoning mind.
Ayn Rand