Ayn Rand

1905–1982 · Russian-American novelist & philosopher

Ayn Rand was born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum in Saint Petersburg in 1905 and died in New York City in 1982. She was a Russian-American writer and philosopher who named her philosophical system Objectivism. She is best known for the novels We the Living (1936), The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957). The sentiment behind this quote belongs to Howard Roark, the hero of The Fountainhead, but the popular one-sentence wording does not appear in her work.

Traced to source

1 quote we’ve traced

“The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me”

Disputed

Not actually Ayn Rand

Often misattributed to Ayn Rand

Famous lines widely pinned on Ayn Rand that we’ve traced to someone else.

“Dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God”

actually R. M. Bevensee

On the research bench

Commonly pinned on Ayn Rand — under review

1 line flagged as pinned on Ayn Rand and queued for a full source trace — not yet verified.

“They didn't have any rights to the land and there was no reason for anyone to grant them rights which they had not conceived and were not using.”

Disputed

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