Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach.

The men who are not interested in philosophy need it most urgently: they are most helplessly in its power. The men who are not interested in philosophy absorb its principles from the cultural atmosphere around them-from schools, colleges, books, magazines, newspapers, movies, television, etc. Who sets the tone of a culture? A small handful of men: the philosophers. Others follow their lead, either by conviction or by default.

Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live.

but their eyes were as cold blue glass buttons.

Dagny, we can never lose the things we live for. We may have to change their form at times, if we've made an error, but the purpose remains the same and the forms are ours to make.

One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary.

I guard my treasures: my thoughts, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom.