So long as men desire to live together, no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. . . . When a man attempts to deal with me by force, I answer him by force. It is only as retaliation that force may be used and only against the man who starts its use. No, I do not share his evil or sink to his concept of morality: I merely grant him his choice, destruction, the only destruction he had the right to choose: his own.
Ayn RandNo man can have a right to impose an unchosen obligation , an unrewarded duty or an involuntary servitude on another man. There can be no such thing as " the right to enslave .
Ayn RandThe attack on "selfishness" is an attack on man's self-esteem; to surrender one, is to surrender the other.
Ayn RandThis was solidarity. The debutante having her toenails pedicured - the housewife buying carrots from a pushcart - the bookkeeper who had wanted to be a pianist, but has the excuse of a sister to support - the businessman who hated his business - the worker who hated his work - the intellectual who hated everybody - all were united as brothers in the luxury of common anger that cured boredom and took them out of themselves, and they knew well enough what a blessing it was to be taken out of themselves.
Ayn RandEveryone has the right to make his own decisions, but none has the right to force his decision on others.
Ayn RandThe leaves streamed down, trembling in the sun. They were not green, only a few, scattered through the torrent, stood out in single drops of green so bright and pure that it hurt the eyes; the rest were not a color, but a light, the substance of fire on metal, living sparks without edges. And it looked as if the forest were a spread of light boiling slowly to produce this color, the green rising in small bubbles, the condensed essence of spring. The trees met, blending over the road and the spots of sun on the ground moved with the shifting of the branches, like a conscious caress.
Ayn RandPeople think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What Iโve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders oneโs reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person oneโs master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that personโs view requires to be fakedโฆThe man who lies to the world, is the worldโs slave from then onโฆThere are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.
Ayn Rand