"The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see."

-- Ayn Rand, from "The Fountainhead"

“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”

-- George Bernard Shaw

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

-- Thomas Jefferson

It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.

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.

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

-- All these quotes are from Ayn Rand, author of "Atlas Shrugged," "The Fountainhead" and other titles.