Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy--a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your own destruction, not the joy of escaping from your mind, but of using your mind's fullest power, not the joy of faking reality, but of achieving values that are real, not the joy of a drunkard, but of a producer.
Ayn RandMorality pertains only to the sphere of man's free will - only to those actions which are open to his choice.
Ayn RandValue is that which one acts to gain and/or keep. Virtue is the act by which one aims and/or keeps it.
Ayn RandThe word which can never die on this earth, for it is the heart of it and the meaning and the glory. The sacred word: EGO.
Ayn RandWhen it is established that government by right can take wealth from some and give it to others. When a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law, men will use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they have passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket.
Ayn RandOne must never allow oneself to acquire an exaggerated sense of one's own importance. There's no necessity to burden oneself with absolutes
Ayn RandWe, Equality 7-2521, were not happy in those year in the Home of the Students. It was not that the learning was too hard for us. It was that the learning was too easy. This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them. The Teachers told us so, and they frowned when they looked at us.
Ayn Rand