Ayn Rand Quotes

It’s a good thing when you don’t dare do something if you don’t think it’s right. But it’s not good when you think something’s not right because you don’t dare do it.

...guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action.

A fool is a person who knows the difference between right and wrong, and chooses to do wrong.

You are wrong, sir, if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his actions, whether what he does is right or wrong, whether he is acting like a good or a bad man.

You might want to think twice before you try to use a man's conscience against him. It may turn out he doesn't have one.

Conscience gets a lot of credit that really belongs to cowardice.

My only fear is doing something contrary to human nature - the wrong thing, the wrong way, or at the wrong time.

They know that people need witches; they need the unofficial people who understand the difference between right and wrong, and when right is wrong and when wrong is right. The world needs the people who work around the edges. They need the people who can deal with the little bumps and inconveniences. And little problems. After all, we are almost all human. Almost all of the time.

Every act of every man is a moral act, to be tested by moral, and not by economic criteria.

Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature

I certainly know the difference between right and wrong.

Prudence reproaches; conscience accuses.

Dissent is morally neutral. You can correctly call yourself a dissident because you like to kick puppies, but at the end of the day, you're just a jerk who likes to kick puppies.

Wisdom is an affair of values, and of value judgments. It is intelligent conduct of human affairs.

One’s concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one’s personal interest in the issue.

Conscience is the reason employed about questions of right and wrong.

The first idea that the child must acquire, in order to be actively disciplined, is that of the difference between good and evil.

Intention, good or bad, is not enough.

He who has never sinned is less reliable than he who has only sinned once.

The right to do something doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

One of them is knowing the difference between Morality and Wisdom. Morality is temporary, Wisdom is permanent… Ho ho. Take that one to bed with you tonight.

Conscience, man's moral medicine chest.

There can be no justification for choosing any part of that which one knows to be evil.

Don't run your life by what's legal or illegal. Run your life based on what's right or wrong.

This inability to think created the possibility for many ordinary men to commit evil deeds on a gigantic scale, the like of which had never been seen before. The manifestation of the wind of thought is not knowledge but the ability to tell right from wrong, beautiful from ugly. And I hope that thinking gives people the strength to prevent catastrophes in these rare moments when the chips are down.