An animal is equipped for sustaining its life; its senses provide it with an automatic code of action, an automatic knowledge of what is good for it or evil... Man has no automatic code of survival. His particular distinction from all other living species is the necessity to act in the face of alternatives by means of volitional choice.
Ayn RandA majority vote is not an epistemological validation of an idea. Voting is merely a proper political device--within a strictly, constitutionall y delimited sphere of action--for choosing the practical means of implementing a societyโs basic principles. But those principles are not determined by vote.
Ayn RandThose who say theory and practice are two unrelated realms are fools in one and scoundrels in the other.
Ayn RandAny group or "collective", large or small, is only a number of individuals. A group can have no rights other than the rights of its individual members.
Ayn RandTo say โI love youโ one must first know how to say the โI.โ The meaning of the โIโ is an independent, self-sufficient entity that does not exist for the sake of any other person. A person who exists only for the sake of his loved one is not an independent entity, but a spiritual parasite. The love of a parasite is worth nothing.
Ayn Rand