# Quote — Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness

> Man's rights can be violated only by the use of physical force. It is only by means of physical force that one man can deprive another of his life, or enslave him, or rob him, or prevent him from pursuing his own goals, or compel him to act against his own rational judgment.

- 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/mans-rights-can

## 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)