Ayn Rand Answers Quotes

“I am profoundly antifeminist, because it's a phony movement. To begin with, it's Marxist-Leninist in origin. It wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants "independence" for women―government-funded independence, supported by taxes. Extorted from whom? From men, whose equals they claim to be. But men did not get established in this country with the help of the government. If women want to be equal―and of course, potentially they are―then they should achieve it on their own, and not as a vicious parasitical pressure group.”
― Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & A

“Once a country accepts censorship of the press and of speech, then nothing can be won without violence. Therefore, so long as you have free speech, protect it. This is the life-and-death issue in this country: do not give up the freedom of the press—of newspapers, books, magazines, television, radios, movies, and every other form of presenting ideas. So long as that's free, a peaceful intellectual turn is possible.”
― Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & A

“...a man of self-esteem does not want the unearned: he doesn't want anything from others that he must obtain by coercion―by crime or by government force and regulation. Such a man deals with other men as an equal, by trade. Further, a man of reason plans his life long range. The psychological distinction between a rational man and an evader is that the rational man thinks, plans, and acts long range, while the more neurotic and evasive a person is, the shorter the range of his interests.”
― Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & A

“If a man is tortured by indecision and no direction, then he has not consciously selected his values. If a man has no idea what his standards or goals are, he cannot be happy no matter what he does. Nor could he know the meaning or emotional quality of his actions and reactions. One cannot solve a problem of indecision by asking: "How can I live with my indecision and be happy?" Man cannot properly live with indecision. He must decide what his values are and why, and then what purpose he wants to pursue. When he has chosen a central purpose, that will give him the lead by which he can organize his whole hierarchy of values. Without that central purpose integrating his values, he can neither be happy nor know what will make him happy.”
― Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & A

“Incidentally, one of the disguises of the liberals is that they want to use force, but legally and in a gentlemanly manner, without people knowing about it. They want to be civilized elite protectors of the common man, who is helpless without them. So they are shocked to see these violent savages who want to take over; and what they'll never admit is that they created these savages. The premises now acting against them are their own. The liberals see in the New Left their own mirror image. The New Left is their Frankenstein's monster: it is the consistent exponent of every fundamental they hold, but never wanted to admit openly and consistently. That is why the liberals are helpless.”
― Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & A

“What liberals believe is that anyone on the left is good―anyone who shares their basic ideas. Welfare-state liberals, socialists, and communists are good. That is a much more damning indictment of them, because Pollyanna―someone who believes everybody is good―wouldn't cause much trouble in the world. It's too far from reality. But the insidiousness of their double standard, which they've been practising since Roosevelt, is: reason and morality apply only to their side. This is a communist technique. Anyone not on the Left (broadly speaking) doesn't exist or is outside morality. Pollyannaism is better than the violent liberal hatred for anyone not on the Left―and the sentimentality for anyone who is. That is the modern liberal idea of fairness and goodness.”
― Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & A

“Of course, one should not forbid religion. Today's culture is such that the moment you oppose something, people believe you want to forbid it by law. If we did that, we'd return to the Dark Ages. Leave people the right to be wrong in their own way. So long as they don't force their ideas on you, you cannot forbid religion to anyone. Further, it's not difficult to fight religion when you have a good philosophy.”
― Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & A

“Censorship operates as it did in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. It's total government-enforced uniformity of opinion, ultimately under penalty of death. We haven't reached that point, and I don't think the government will get away with it here, at least not yet. Even in Russia (where I witnessed the process), after the Communists seized power, they didn't established total censorship immediately. It took years of gradual steps, each one a trial balloon. They got away with it through smaller encroachments, until they established total censorship... We must be aware of the advance of censorship. And if the government begins a wholesale suppression, then it's proper to revolt.”
― Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & A

“When I say a man survives by means of his mind, I mean that man's first moral virtue is to think and to be productive. That is not the same as saying: "Get your pile of money by hook or by crook, and then sit at home and enjoy it." You assume rational self-interest is simply ensuring one's physical luxury. But What would a man do with himself once he has those millions. He would stagnate. No man who has used his mind enough to achieve a fortune is going to be happy doing nothing. His self-interest does not lie in consumption, but in production—in the creative expansion of his mind.”
― Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & A

“There is no such thing as a natural monopoly, any more than there is a natural crime. There isn't a single profession or service of a productive nature that should be a monopoly , enforced by law. If any one businessman in a given field can successfully provide all the services and best products at the best price, you could loosely call that a "natural monopoly", but it's not a monopoly in the usual sense—that is, it isn't coercive.”
― Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & A