Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artists metaphysical value judgments.

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

I do not seek the good of others as a sanction for my right to exist, nor do I recognize the good of others as a justification for their seizure of my property or their destruction of my life.

I cannot stand Tolstoy, and reading him was the most boring literary duty I ever had to perform, his philosophy and his sense of life are not merely mistaken, but evil, and yet, from a purely literary viewpoint, on his own terms, I have to evaluate him as a good writer.

So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?

The virtue involved in helping those one loves is not 'selflessness' or 'sacrifice,' but integrity.

One can't love man without hating most of the creatures who pretend to bear his name.