Quote 21
To grasp the axiom that existence exists, means to grasp the fact that nature, i.e., the universe as a whole, cannot be created or annihilated, that it cannot come into or go out of existence. Whether its basic constituent elements are atoms, or subatomic particles, or some yet undiscovered forms of energy, it is not ruled by a consciousness or by will or by chance, but by the Law of Identity. All the countless forms, motions, combinations and dissolutions of elements within the universe - from a floating speck of dust to the formation of a galaxy to the emergence of life - are caused and determined by the identities of the elements involved. Nature is the metaphysically given - i.e., the nature of nature is outside any volition.
Ayn Rand, "The Metaphysical Versus The Man-Made."
Philosophy: Who Needs It?

Quote 22
Every movement that seeks to enslave a country, every dictatorship or potential dictatorship, needs some minority group as a scapegoat which it can blame for the nation's troubles and use as a justification of its own demand for dictatorial powers. In Soviet Russia, the scapegoat was the bourgeoisie; in Nazi Germany, it was the Jewish people; in America, it is the businessmen.
Ayn Rand, "America's Persecuted Minority: Big Business."
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.

Quote 23
The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man's self-defense, and, as such, may only resort to force only against those who start the use of force.
Ayn Rand, "Galt's Speech."
Atlas Shrugged.

Quote 24
One's own independent judgment is the means by which one must choose one's actions, but it is not a moral criterion nor a moral validation; only reference to a demonstrable principle can validate one's choices.
Ayn Rand.
"Introduction," The Virtue of Selfishness.

Quote 25
If some men are entitled by right to the property of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of the rights and condemned to slave labor. Any alleged "right" of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right. No man can have a right to impose an unchosen obligation, an unrewarded duty or an involuntary servitude on another man. There can be no such thing as "the right to enslave".
-- Ayn Rand. "Man's Right".

Quote 26
Man has been called a rational being, 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.
Ayn Rand, "Galt's Speech."
Atlas Shrugged.

Quote 27
Individual rights are the means of subordinationg society to moral law.
Ayn Rand, "Man's Rights."
The Virtue of Selfishness.

Quote 28
Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think.
Ayn Rand, "The Meaning of Money."
Atlas Shrugged.

Quote 29
Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence, of man, and of man's relationship to existence. As against the specialsciences, which deal only with particular aspects, philosophy deals with those aspects of the universe which pertain to everything that exists. In the realm of cognition, the special sciences are the trees, but philosophy is the soil which makes the forest possible.
Ayn Rand, "Philosophy: Who Needs It."
Philosophy: Who Needs It.

Quote 30
Since time immemorial and pre-industrial, 'greed' has been the accusation hurled at the rich by the concrete-bound illiterates who were unable to conceive of the source of wealth or of the motivation of those who produce it.
Ayn Rand.

Quote 31
Every movement that seeks to enslave a country, every dictatorship or potential dictatorship, needs some minority group as a scapegoat which it can blame for the nation's troubles and use as a justification of its own demand for dictatorial powers. In Soviet Russia, the scapegoat was the bourgeoisie; in Nazi Germany, it was the Jewish people; in America, it is the businessmen.
Ayn Rand, "America's Persecuted Minority: Big Business."
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.

Quote 32
An individualist is a man who says: "I will not run anyone's life - nor let anyone run mine. I will not rule or be ruled. I will not be a master nor a slave. I will not sacrifice myself to anyone - nor sacrifice anyone to myself."
Ayn Rand, "Textbook of Americanism."

Quote 33
To grasp the axiom that existence exists, means to grasp the fact that nature, i.e., the universe as a whole, cannot be created or annihilated, that it cannot come into or go out of existence. Whether its basic constituent elements are atoms, or subatomic particles, or some yet undiscovered forms of energy, it is not ruled by a consciousness or by will or by chance, but by the Law of Identity. All the countless forms, motions, combinations and dissolutions of elements within the universe - from a floating speck of dust to the formation of a galaxy to the emergence of life - are caused and determined by the identities of the elements involved. Nature is the metaphysically given - i.e., the nature of nature is outside any volition.
Ayn Rand, "The Metaphysical Versus The Man-Made."
Philosophy: Who Needs It?

Quote 34
But neither politics nor ethics nor philosophy is an end in itself, neither in life nor in literature.
Only Man is an end in himself.
Ayn Rand.
"Introduction, The Fountainhead." New York, May 1968.

Quote 35
It does not matter that only a few in each generation will grasp and achieve the full reality of man's proper stature and that the rest will betray it. It is those few that move the world and give life its meaning- and it is those few that I have always sought to address. The rest are of no concern of mine; it is not me or the Fountainhead that they will betray: it is their own souls.
Ayn Rand.
"Introduction, The Fountainhead." New York, May 1968.

Quote 36
In a play I wrote in my early thirties,Ideal, the heroine, a screen star, speaks for me when she says: "I want to see, real, living and in the hours of my own days, that glory I create as an illusion. I want it real. I want to know that there is someone, somewhere, who wants it, too. Or else what is the use of seeing it, and working, and burning oneself for an impossible vision! A spirit too needs fuel. It can run dry."
Ayn Rand.
"Introduction, The Fountainhead." New York, May 1968.

Quote 37
The first right on earth is the right of the ego. Man's first duty is to himself. His moral law is never to place his prime goal within the persons of others. His moral obligation is to do what he wishes, provided his wish does not depend primarily upon other men.
Ayn Rand.
Roark's Trial. "The Fountainhead."

Quote 38
The egoist in the absolute sense is not the man who sacrifices others. He is the man who stands above the need of using others in any manner. He does not function through them. He is not concerned with them in any primary manner. Not in his aim, not in his motive, not in the source of his energy. He does not exist for any other man- and asks no other man to exist for him. This is the only form of brotherhood and mutual respect possible between men.
Ayn Rand.
Roark's Trial. "The Fountainhead."

Quote 39
The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed or subordinated to any consideration whatsoever. It demands total independence in function and motive.
Ayn Rand.
Roark's Trial. "The Fountainhead."

Quote 40
But the mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought. An agreement reached by a group of men is only compromise or a agreement drawn upon many individual thoughts. It is a secondary consequence. The primary act- the process of reason- must be performed by each man alone. We can divide a meal among many men. We cannot digest it in a collective stomach.
Ayn Rand.
Roark's Trial. "The Fountainhead."