Ayn Rand

He thought suddenly that there was some phrase, a kind of quotation, that expressed what the calendar seemed to suggest.

But he still thought it self-evident that one had to do what was right; he had never learned how people could want to do otherwise; he had learned only that they did. It still seemed simple and incomprehensible to him: simple that things should be right, and incomprehensible that they weren’t. He knew that they weren’t.

She liked his face—its lines were tight and firm, it did not have that look of loose muscles evading the responsibility of a shape, which she had learned to expect in people’s faces.

"If you want my advice, Peter," he said at last, "you've made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?"

Men hate passion, any great passion. Henry Cameron made a mistake: he loved his work. That was why he fought. That was why he lost.

One reaches an age when one can't be burdened with business any longer.

Think of yourself for an hour, but give one minute to the thought of others.

You're a self-centered monster, Howard. The more monstrous because you're utterly innocent about it.

happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.

It is forbidden, not to be happy. For, as it has been explained to us, men are free and the earth belongs to them; and all things on earth belong to all men; and the will of all men together is good for all; and so all men must be happy.