#w

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#anything #approaching #brute #brute force #citizens

Government "help" to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#business #disastrous #hands #help #just

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual). ↗

— Ayn Rand

#earth #function #individual #individual rights #majorities

It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#collecting #intends #man #master #masters

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. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#becomes #breaking #crack #crime #criminals

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

— Ayn Rand

#contradiction #contradictions #exist #facing #find

Love is the expression of one's values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities you have achieved in your character and person, the emotional price paid by one man for the joy he receives from the virtues of another. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#another #character #earn #emotional #expression

The thinkers of the world should by rights be guardians of the world's mirth. ↗

— Agnes Repplier

#mirth #rights #should #thinkers #world

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

— Ayn Rand

#centuries #down #first #men #new

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#existence #free #his #laws #man