Ayn Rynd Atlas Shrugged
The following quotes are from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This book has resurfaced and is being read more than ever. I read the book while in college working in the area of Philosophy. The quotes that follow depict values that were prevalent the many years ago when I was in college and again are prevalent now as we look at the economic and political situation in our country.

“I work for nothing but my own profit—which I make by selling a product they need to men who are willing and able to buy it. . . . we deal as equals by mutual consent to mutual advantage and I am proud of every penny I have earned in this manner.”

“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” Productive achievement is a value that is critical to a philosophy of success. Producing a product that is needed and sold to another is a fundamental to value of self. To sit idly by and collect, live on and bask inthe achievements of others is of no value.

“Whoever you are, you who are hearing me now, I am speaking to whatever living remnant is left uncorrupted within you, to the remnant of the human, to your mind, and I say: There is a morality of reason, a morality proper to man, and Man’s Life is its standard of value.”



There was a gasp, not of indignation, but of astonishment, in the crowd behind him and silence from the judges he faced. He went on calmly:

"I am rich and I am proud of every penny I own. I made my money by my own effort, in free exchange and through the voluntary consent of of those who employed me when I started, the voluntary consent of those who work for me now, the voluntary consent of those who buy my product. I shall answer all the questions you are afraid to ask me openly. Do I wish to pay my workers more than their services are worth to me? I do not. Do I wish to sell my product for less than my customers are willing to pay me? I do not. Do I wish to sell it at a loss or give it away? I do not. If this is evil, do whatever you please about me, according to whatever standards you hold.

Ayn Rand advocated a system of capitalism, by which she meant “a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism—with a separation of state and economics in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of church and state.”

“I have held the same philosophy as I hold now, for as far back as I can remember. I have learned a great deal through the years and expanded my knowledge of details, of specific issues, of definitions, of applications and I intend to continue expanding it—but I have never had to change any of my fundamentals. My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

“I trust that no one will tell me that men such as as I write about don’t exist. That this book has been written—and published—is my proof that they do.”

Ayn Rand was both a novelist and a philosopher. She developed a full philosophical system, which she named Objectivism and it had a big impact on those of my generation who read it.

“Man has been called a rational animal, but rationality is a matter of choice—and the alternative his nature offers him is: rational being or suicidal animal. Man has to be man—by choice; he has to hold his life as a value—by choice; he has to learn to sustain it—by choice; he has to discover the values it requires and practice his virtues—by choice." Do you take responsibility for your choices?

“A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.

“Whoever you are, you who are hearing me now, I am speaking to whatever living remnant is left uncorrupted within you, to the remnant of the human, to your mind, and I say: There is a morality of reason, a morality proper to man, and Man’s Life is its standard of value."

“All that which is proper to the life of a rational being is the good; all that which destroys it is the evil."

“Man’s life, as required by his nature, is not the life of a mindless brute, of a looting thug or a mooching mystic, but the life of a thinking being—not life by means of force or fraud, but life by means of achievement—not survival at any price, since there’s only one price that pays for man’s survival: reason."

Ayn Rand wrote “I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason.”

—Ayn Rand