It 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 RandI am neither foe nor friend to my brothers, but such as each of them shall deserve of me. And to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be earned.
Ayn RandI can say-not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological , ethical, political and esthetic roots-that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.
Ayn RandThe first society in history whose leaders were neither Attilas nor Witch Doctors, a society led, dominated and created by the Producers, was the United States of America.
Ayn Rand