Quote #185

To the extent that a man is guided by his rational judgment, he acts in accordance with the requirements of his nature and, to that extent, succeeds in achieving a human form of survival and well-being; to the extent that he acts irrationally, he acts as his own destroyer.

More from Ayn Rand

  1. To rest one's case on faith means to concede that reason is on the side of one's enemies- that one has no rational arguments to offer.
  2. Today, when a concerted effort is made to obliterate this point, it cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on t…
  3. To preserve one's mind intact through a modern college education is a test of courage and endurance, but the battle is worth it and the sta…
  4. Unjust laws have to be fought ideologically; they cannot be fought or corrected by means of mere disobedience and futile martyrdom.
  5. To love is to value. Only a rationally selfish man, a man of self-esteem, is capable of love - because he is the only man capable of holdin…
  6. Volumes can be and have been written about the issue of freedom versus dictatorship, but, in essence, it comes down to a single question: d…
  7. To know one's own desires, their meaning and their costs requires the highest human virtue: rationality.
  8. We cannot fight against anything, unless we fight for something -- and what we must fight for is the supremacy of reason, and a view of man…

All Ayn Rand quotes