The following is a collection of my favorite quotes from Ayn Rand. I hope you find them as powerful and thought-provoking as I do.

Government “help” to business is just as disastrous as government persecution… the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.

“Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy … Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and finds his joy in nothing but rational actions.”

So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.

There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.

“Great men can’t be ruled.”

“The most depraved type of human being … (is) the man without a purpose.”

“The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.”

“The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals … it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government … it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen’s protection against the government.”

“A rational man is guided by his thinking – by a process of Reason – not by his feelings and desires.”

“Capitalism is the only system that can make freedom, individuality, and the pursuit of values possible in practice.”