Ayn Rand quotes that stand true even today

Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.

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.

If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.

Don't fool yourself, my dear. You're much worse than a bitch. You're a saint. Which shows why saints are dangerous and undesirable.

Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants.

There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.

A man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress.

Worry is a waste of emotional reserve.

The alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind.

A culture is made — or destroyed — by its articulate voices.

Whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's potential.

Every honest man lives for himself. Every man worth calling a man lives for himself. The one who doesn't - doesn't live at all.

One must never allow oneself to acquire an exaggerated sense of one's own importance. There's no necessity to burden oneself with absolutes.

Everyone has the right to make his own decisions, but none has the right to force his decision on others.

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.

Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.

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.

The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.

In a free society, one does not have to deal with those who are irrational. One is free to avoid them.

A rational man never distorts or corrupts his own standards and judgment in order to appeal to the irrationality, stupidity, or dishonesty of others.