Ayn Rand Novelist

Gender: Female
Citizenship: United States
Born: Feb 2, 1905
Died: Mar 6, 1982

Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, Rand moved to the United States in 1926. She had a play produced on Broadway in 1935 - 1936. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful in America, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead.

In 1957, she published her best-known work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own magazines and releasing several collections of essays until her death in 1982. Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge and rejected faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism, and rejected altruism. In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and opposed collectivism and statism as well as anarchism, instead supporting laissez-faire capitalism, which she defined as the system based on recognizing individual rights. In art, Rand promoted romantic realism.

Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice. power

When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is. hope

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others. motivational

To say 'I love you' one must first be able to say the 'I.' love

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter. life & money

Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. money & society

A building has integrity just like a man. And just as seldom. architecture

The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity. best & success

Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone. alone

I don't build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build. architecture

Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law. society

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision. men

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

Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. money

If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject. men

Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death. death

Upper classes are a nation's past the middle class is its future. future

I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine. life & love

Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason. men & money

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values. happiness

The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it. men, truth & wisdom

God... a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive. faith, God & power

To achieve, you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that's real power. power

Do not ever say that the desire to 'do good' by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives. good