Ayn Rand quotes:
The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow.
It is futile to fight against, if one does not know what one is fighting for.
There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
Today, when a concerted effort is made to obliterate this point, it cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals -- that it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government -- that it is not a charter _for_ government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection _against_ the government.
When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.
Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgement and nothing can help you escape it -- that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life.
Volumes can be and have been written about the issue of freedom versus dictatorship, but, in essence, it comes down to a single question: do you consider it moral to treat men as sacrificial animals and to rule them by physical force?
I swear by my life, and love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time.
There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers.
Do you think that we want those laws to be observed? We want them broken. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power the government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.
Whoever claims the right to redistribute the wealth produced by others is claiming the right to treat human beings as chattel.
The essential characteristic of socialism is the denial of individual property rights...
quotes.liberty-tree.ca |
