Since men are neither omniscient nor infallible, they must be free to agree or disagree, to cooperate or to pursue their own independent course, each according to his own rational judgment. Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man's mind.
America’s abundance was not created by public sacrifices to the “common good,” but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes.
- Topic: Fortune, Society, Wealth
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from Ayn Rand
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, butt 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.
The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.
A society that tolerates intimidation as a means of settling disputes…loses its moral rights to exist as a social system, and its collapse does not take long to follow.
Men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.
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This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune—often the surfeit of our own behavior—we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and teachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence.
Master of human destinies am I! Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait.
The man who is truly good and wise will bear with dignity whatever fortune sends, and will always make the best of his circumstances.
An aspiration is a joy forever, a possession as solid as a landed estate, a fortune which we can never exhaust and which gives us year by year a revenue of pleasurable activity.
Those disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory, sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them.
A fair character is a fair fortune.
No matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as the truth.
If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.
Diversity of opinion within the framework of loyalty to our free society is not only basic to a university but to the entire nation.
If a businessman makes a mistake, he suffers the consequences. If a bureaucrat makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences.
There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.
The greatest evils in the world will not be carried out by men with guns, but by men in suits sitting behind desks.
There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.
Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.
Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.
Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship…the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.
If you can't pay for a thing, don't buy it. If you can't get paid for it, don't sell it. Do this, and you will have calm and drowsy nights, with all of the good business you have now and none of the bad.
The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bond together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship.
To be able to give away riches is mandatory if you wish to possess them. This is the only way that you will be truly rich.
If you compromise your own conscience, you will weaken your conscience. Soon your conscience will fail to guide you and you never will have real wealth based on peace of mind.
If you have health, you probably will be happy, and if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need, even if it is not all you want.
A man's true wealth is the good he does in the world.