Ayn Rand Quotes About Economics

• America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America's industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages, and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance- and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way.

  Ayn Rand

  Country, Jobs, Moving

  "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal". Book by Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden, 1966.

• America's abundance was not created by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes.

  Ayn Rand

  Sacrifice, Men, America

  Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen (1986). “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”, p.27, Penguin

• The right to vote is a consequence, not a primary cause, of a free social system - and its value depends on the constitutional structure implementing and strictly delimiting the voters' power; unlimited majority rule is an instance of the principle of tyranny.

  Ayn Rand

  Majority Rule, Liberty, Principles

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.522, Penguin

• Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority.

  Ayn Rand

  Rights, Liberty, Majority

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.100, Penguin

• An inventor is a man who asks 'Why?' of the universe and lets nothing stand between the answer and his mind.

  Ayn Rand

  Philosophy, Men, Political

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.133, Penguin

• To deal with men by force is as impractical as to deal with nature by persuasion.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Liberty, Persuasion

  Ayn Rand (1984). “Philosophy: Who Needs It”, p.38, Penguin

• In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.

  Ayn Rand

  Winning, Evil, Liberty

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.170, Penguin

• A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort ... is not strictly speaking a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang violence.

  Ayn Rand

  Effort, Liberty, Together

• Economic power is exercised by means of a positive, by offering men a reward, an incentive, a payment, a value; political power is exercised by means of a negative, by the threat of punishment, injury, imprisonment, destruction. The businessman's tool is values; the bureaucrat's tool is fear.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Men, Offering

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.153, Penguin

• The end does not justify the means. No one's rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Rights, Liberty

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.229, Penguin

• In a capitalist society, all human relationships are voluntary. Men are free to cooperate or not, to deal with one another or not, as their own individual judgments, convictions and interests dictate.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Liberty, Economics

  Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen (1986). “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”, p.17, Penguin

• People are not embracing collectivism because they have accepted bad economics. They are accepting bad economics because they have embraced collectivism.

  Ayn Rand

  People, Economics, Accepted

  Ayn Rand (1997). “Letters of Ayn Rand”, p.278, Penguin

• The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time.

  Ayn Rand

  Differences, Liberty, Matter

• The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government.

  Ayn Rand

  Government, Liberty, Doe

• 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 demands 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

  Country, America, Russia

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.143, Penguin

• The difference between [socialism and fascism] is superficial and purely formal, but it is significant psychologically: it brings the authoritarian nature of a planned economy crudely into the open. The main characteristic of socialism (and of communism) is public ownership of the means of production, and, therefore, the abolition of private property. The right to property is the right of use and disposal. Under fascism, men retain the semblance or pretense of private property, but the government holds total power over its use and disposal.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Power, Men

• One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary.

  Ayn Rand

  Hands, Feet, Ties

  Ayn Rand (1990). “The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought”, p.139, Penguin

• Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights, that his life and work belong to the group (to "society," to the tribe, the state, the nation) and that the group may sacrifice him at its own whim to its own interests. The only way to implement a doctrine of that kind is by means of brute force - and statism has always been the poltical corollary of collectivism.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Sacrifice, Rights

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.122, Penguin

• Government control of the economy, no matter in whose behalf, has been the source of all the evils in our industrial society -- and the solution is laissez-faire capitalism, i.e., the abolition of any and all forms of intervention in production and trade, the separation of State and Economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of Church and State.

  Ayn Rand

  Government, Evil, Church

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

  Ayn Rand

  Decision, Liberty, Economics

• There are only two means by which men can deal with one another: guns or logic. Force or persuasion. Those who know that they cannot win by means of logic, have always resorted to guns.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Gun, Winning

  Ayn Rand (1984). “Philosophy: Who Needs It”, p.70, Penguin

• 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.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Insanity, Swim

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.129, Penguin

• A 'mixed economy' is a society in the process of committing suicide.

  Ayn Rand

  Suicide, Economics, Economy

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.239, Penguin

• The more propaganda . . . conservatives spread for capitalist economics while at the same time preaching collectivism morally and philosophically , the more nails they’ll drive into capitalism’s coffin.

  Ayn Rand

  Nails, Coffins, Economics

  Ayn Rand (1997). “Letters of Ayn Rand”, p.281, Penguin

• It is true that the welfare-statists are not socialists, that they never advocated or intended the socialization of private property, that they want to 'preserve' private property-with government control of its use and disposal. But that is the fundamental characteristic of fascism.

  Ayn Rand

  Government, Liberty, Use

  Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen (1986). “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”, p.202, Penguin

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