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Altruism has indoctrinated men with the idea that to value another human being is an act of selflessness, thus implying that a man can have no personal interest in others.

Suffering as such is not a value; only man's fight against suffering is.

The precondition of a civilized society is barring of physical force from human relations, thus establishing the principle that if men wish to deal with one another, it is only by means of reason: by discussion, persuasion & voluntary, uncoerced agreement.

Those who start by saying: "It is selfish to pursue your own wishes, you must sacrifice them to the wishes of others"--end up by saying: "It is selfish to uphold your convictions, you must sacrifice them to the convictions of others."

The most selfish of all things is the independent mind that recognizes no authority higher than its own and no value higher than its judgment of truth.

A European is disarmed in the face of a dictatorship: he may hate it, but he feels that he is wrong and the State is right. An American would rebel to the bottom of his soul. Defiance, not obedience, is the American's answer to overbearing authority.

Just as there is no such thing as a collective or racial mind, so there is no such thing as a collective or racial achievement. There are only individual minds and individual achievements.

Existence is Identity, Consciousness is Identification.

The men who are not interested in philosophy need it most urgently: they are most helplessly in its power. They absorb its principles from the cultural atmosphere around them--from schools, colleges, books, magazines, newspapers, movies, television, etc.

Who sets the tone of a culture? A small handful of men: the philosophers. Others follow their lead, either by conviction or by default.

There is only one difference in the legal treatment accorded to a criminal or to a businessman: the criminal's rights are protected much more securely and objectively than the businessman's.

When men abandon reason, physical force becomes their only means of dealing with one another and of settling disagreements.

The creator's concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite's concern is the conquest of men.

A businessman's success depends on his intelligence, his knowledge, his productive ability, his economic judgment--and on the voluntary agreement of all those he deals with.... A bureaucrat's success depends on his political pull.

It stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there's someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.

The crass skepticism and epistemological cynicism of Kant's influence have been seeping from the universities to the arts, the sciences, the industries, the legislatures, saturating our culture, decomposing language and thought.

Emotions are not tools of cognition.... One must differentiate between one's thoughts and one's emotions with full clarity and precision.

The acceptance of full responsibility for one's own choices and actions (and their consequences) is such a demanding moral discipline that many men seek to escape it by surrendering to what they believe is the easy, safety of the morality of "duty."

So long as men hold that the individual is sacrificial fodder for the collective, that some men have the right to rule others by force, and that some (any) alleged "good" can justify it--there can be no peace within a nation and no peace among nations.

Those who tell you that man is unable to perceive a reality undistorted by his senses, mean that they are unwilling to perceive a realtiy undistorted by their feelings.

Capitalism has been called a system of greed--yet it is the system that raised the standard of living of its poorest citizens to heights no collectivist system has ever begun to equal, and no tribal gang can conceive of.

Capitalism has been called nationalistic--yet it is the only system that banished ethnicity, and made it possible, in the United States, for men of various formerly antagonistic nationalities to live together in peace.

A sin without volition is a slap at morality and an insolent contradiction in terms: that which is outside the possibility of choice is outside the province of morality.

Definitions are the guardians of rationality, the first line of defense against the chaos of mental disintegration.

Wealth, in a free market, is achieved by a free vote - by the sales and the purchases of every individual who takes part in the [economy] of the country. Whenever you buy one product rather than another, you are voting for the success of some manufacturer.

By refusing to say, "It is," you are refusing to say "I am." By suspending your judgment, you are negating your person. When a man declares: "Who am I to know?"--he is declaring: "Who am I to live?"

"Why yes, I can," said Midas Mulligan, when he was asked whether he could name a person more evil than the man with a heart closed to pity. "The man who uses another's pity for him as a weapon."

Whoever defends his own rights defends the rights of all.

Capiitalism is not the system of the past; it is the system of the future--if mankind is to have a future.

Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?