It was the only thing I ever really wanted. And that’s the sin that can’t be forgiven--that I hadn’t done what I wanted. It feels so dirty and pointless and monstrous, as one feels about insanity, because there’s no sense to it, no dignity, nothing but pain--and wasted pain...why do they always teach us that it’s easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It’s the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage.

About This Quote

About Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was a 20th-century American american writer and philosopher. Alice O'Connor, better known by her pen name Ayn Rand, was a Russian-American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which she named Objectivism. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Courage — Facing fear, adversity, and uncertainty with bravery

More quotes by Ayn Rand

Related Quotes