Any alleged 'right' of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.
Ayn RandThrough the dry phases of calculations in her mind, she noticed that she did have time to feel something: it was the hard, exhilarating pleasure of action.
Ayn Rand"You were not born to be a second-hander." Howard Roark to Gail Wynand in "The Fountainhead"
Ayn RandProductiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live-that productive work is the process by which man's consciousness controls his existence, a constant process of acquiring knowledge and shaping matter to fit one's purpose, of translating an idea into physical form, of remaking the earth in the image of one's values-that all work is creative work if done by a thinking mind.
Ayn RandIt was the only thing I ever really wanted. And thatโs the sin that canโt be forgiven--that I hadnโt done what I wanted. It feels so dirty and pointless and monstrous, as one feels about insanity, because thereโs no sense to it, no dignity, nothing but pain--and wasted pain...why do they always teach us that itโs easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? Itโs the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage.
Ayn Rand