Atlas Shrugged Quotes

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.

The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.

The man who could live alone and stand alone, the man who neither leans on others nor makes others lean on him, the man who needs no help and grants none to others, is the man they can’t beat.

I want to see it when this country has grown up. When it learns how to walk on its own. When it stops crawling for help.

I’m after a man. I’m after a statue, the living statue of human greatness.

I have no plan to win you over. And I have no plan to force you to deal with me. As if it mattered to me at all.

Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.

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.

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.

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to live in a society where everything is done solely for the sake of others?

There is no reason for you to tell me the truth. I don’t care what your truth may be.

There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

All the men who have vanished, the men you hated, yet dreaded to lose, it is I who have taken them away from you. Do not attempt to find us. We do not choose to be found. Do not cry that it is our duty to serve you. We do not recognize such duty. Do not cry that you need us. We do not consider need a claim. Do not cry that you own us. You don’t. Do not beg us to return. We are on strike, we, the men of the mind.

I’m a specialist in self-esteem. I prescribe it and I know how to develop it. For I have a very special and effective technique: I threaten it. I tell my patients not to seek their true self and not to feel it, not to accept it, not to identify it. I tell them to do all the things that they, as individuals, want to do. I make them crave, hunger and beg for it and then I withhold it, I make sure not to give it to them; for only the lack of self-esteem can make them crave it still more, feel deserving of it and make them subservient to it.

The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.

It’s not that I don’t suffer, it’s that I know the unimportance of suffering. I know that pain is to be fought and thrown aside, not to be accepted as part of one’s soul and as a permanent scar across one’s view of existence.

An individualist is a man who says: I’ll not run anyone’s life – nor let anyone run mine. I will not rule nor be ruled. I will heal myself and I will create my own peace.

Do you always think that people are honest just because they haven’t been caught lying yet?

Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.

Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where the gun begins.

Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where the gun begins.

Reason and emotion are not antagonists. What seems like a struggle between two opposing camps who want to rule the world -but don’t quite agree on the reason- is not a struggle between two faculties; it is a struggle of a faculty against a nonfaculty.

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.

But, you might ask, what about justice? Do we not need to provide justice for all? My answer to that is simple: no one deserves justice. Justice is a bankrupt ideal, a myth peddled by the weak in an attempt to bring down the strong. I don’t deal in justice; I deal in reality.

The world is not a playground where everything is permitted. It is a battlefield where only those willing to fight for their convictions will survive.

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.

I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone’s right to one minute of my life. No matter who makes the claim, how large their numbers or how great their need.

Freedom is the absence of coercion, not the absence of rules.

The road to freedom is a long and difficult journey, but every step you take is a step toward reclaiming your own life.

Do not be afraid to stand alone. The greatest freedom you can ever imagine is being able to think for yourself, to decide for yourself, and to live your life on your own terms.

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

The only man never to be enslaved is the individual who refuses to fit himself to society’s molds.

It is not enough to live; you must live a life worth living, a life that is filled with purpose and meaning.

The world needs more heroes and fewer followers.

The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference.

Success is not achieved by chance; it is earned through hard work, dedication, and a relentless pursuit of excellence.

Your life is your own; live it with passion, purpose, and integrity.

The greatest tragedy is not death, but a life lived without purpose.

The world is not fair, but that does not mean you have to be unjust.

The value of time is not in the minutes and hours; it is in what you do with them.

Don’t wait for the perfect moment; take the moment and make it perfect.

Failure is not a setback; it is an opportunity to learn and grow.

In the face of adversity, remember that you are stronger than you think.

The only limits that exist are the ones you create in your own mind.

Success is not measured by how much you have, but by how much you have to give.

Don’t be afraid to take risks; the greatest rewards often come from the greatest risks.

Life is too short to waste on anything but the pursuit of your dreams.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.

The only way to do great work is to love what you do.