"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." - Ayn Rand.

"What is the basic, the essential, the crucial principle that differentiates freedom from slavery? It is the principle of voluntary action versus physical coercion or compulsion." - Ayn Rand.

"When opposite basic principles are clearly and openly defined, it works to the advantage of the rational side;  when they are not clearly defined, but are hidden or evaded, it works to the  advantage of the irrational side." - Ayn Rand.

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission, which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." - Ayn Rand, "The Nature of Government."

"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."  - Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged."

"Observe ... the intellectual precision of the Founding Fathers: they spoke of the right to 'the pursuit' of happiness  -- 'not' of the right 'to' happiness.  It means that a man has the right to take the actions he deems necessary to achieve his happiness;  it does NOT mean that others must make him happy." - Ayn Rand.

"[S]ince there is no such entity as 'the public,' since the public is merely a number of individuals, the idea that 'the public interest' supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning: That the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others." - Ayn Rand.

"The majority of those who are loosely defined by the term 'liberals'... want to keep all the advantages and effects of capitalism, while destroying the cause, and they want to establish statism without its necessary effects. They do not want to know or admit that they are the champions of dictatorship and slavery." - Ayn Rand.

"Today, when a concerted effort is made to obliterate this point, it cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals - that it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government - that it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizens' protection against the government." - Ayn Rand.