# Quote — Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness

> 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).

- Author: [Ayn Rand](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand.md)
- Book: [The Virtue of Selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand#The_Virtue_of_Selfishness_(1964)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness/individual-rights-are-not

## More from this book

> When a man declares: "There are no blacks and whites [in morality]" he is making a psychological confession, and what he means is: "I am unwilling to be wholly good—and please don't regard me as wholly evil!"

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness/when-a-man.md)

> Observe, in politics, that the term extremism has become a synonym of "evil," regardless of the content of the issue (the evil is not what you are extreme about, but that you are "extreme"—i.e., consistent).

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness/observe-in-politics.md)

> The moral cannibalism of all hedonist and altruist doctrines lies in the premise that the happiness of one man necessitates the injury of another.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness/the-moral-cannibalism.md)