Art is the indespensible medium for the communication of a moral idea.

Money is the barometer of a society's virtue.

Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it.

James, you ought to discover some day that words have an exact meaning.

I can accept anthing, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.

Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death.

Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns--or dollars. Take your choice--there is no other.

A good novel is an indivisible sum; every scene, sequence and passage of a good novel has to involve, contribute to and advance all three of its major attributes: theme, plot, characterization.

He was guilty of nothing, except that he earned his own fortune and never forgot that it was his.

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplacable spark. In the hopeless swamps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all, do not let the hero in your soul perish and leave only frustration for the life you deserved, but never have been able to reach. The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.

Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it.

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.

Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think.

The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence.

When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is.

Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday...The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production.

Guilt is a rope that wears thin.

Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man?s values, it has to be earned.

If men want to oppose war, it is *statism* that they must oppose.

It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.

The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them.

Live a life as a monument to your soul.

Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and finds his joy in nothing buy rational actions.

There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.

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.

Love is our response to our highest values. Love is self-enjoyment. The noblest love is born out of admiration of another?s values.

I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.

Honesty is the recognition of the fact that the unreal is unreal and can have no value, that neither love nor fame nor cash is a value if obtained by fraud.

He had a big head and a face so ugly it became almost fascinating.

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice.

So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money

Doctors are not servants of their patients, they are traders like everyone else in a free society and they should bear that title proudly considering the crucial importance of the services they offer.

An artist does not fake reality--he *stylizes* it.

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it.

Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness, just as honesty is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake existence.