Ayn Rand
Born: 02-01-1905
Ayn Rand, born in 1905 in Russia, was a novelist and philosopher best known for her development of Objectivism, a philosophy promoting individualism and rational self-interest. Immigrating to the United States in 1926, she gained fame with her novels "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged," both of which convey her philosophical ideas. Rand's work has inspired a dedicated following and continues to influence libertarian and conservative thought.
Book summaries for books written by Ayn Rand
Quotes
The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.
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.
Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists... it is real... it is possible... it's yours.
The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.
The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.
The question isn't whether I can, but whether I want to.
There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.
A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.
Thought is a man's only basic virtue, from which all the others proceed.
The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.
I started my life with a single absolute: that the world was mine to shape in the image of my highest values and never to be given up to a lesser standard, no matter how long or hard the struggle.