Capitalism demands the best of every man - his rationality - and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him.
Ayn RandBy what he chooses to present and by how he presents it, any author expresses his fundamental, metaphysical values.
Ayn RandAn attempt to achieve the good by force is like an attempt to provide a man with a picture gallery at the price of cutting out his eyes.
Ayn RandHe, too, stood looking at her for a moment - and it seemed to her that it was not a look of greeting after an absence, but the look of someone who had thought of her every day of that year. She could not be certain, it was only an instant, so brief that just as she caught it, he was turning.
Ayn RandThat love is reverence, and worship, and glory, and the upward glance. Not a bandage for dirty sores. But they donโt know it. Those who speak of love most promiscuously are the ones whoโve never felt it. They make some sort of feeble stew out of sympathy, compassion, contempt, and general indifference, and they call it love. Once youโve felt what it means to love as you and I know it โ the total passion for the total height โ youโre incapable of anything less.
Ayn Rand