Self-Defense
"The necessary consequence of man’s right to life is his right to self-defense. In a civilized society, force may be used only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. All the reasons which make the initiation of physical force an evil, make the retaliatory use of physical force a moral imperative..."
~ Ayn Rand, "The Nature of Government," The Virtue of Selfishness, 108
"Just as an individual has the right of self-defense, so has a free country if attacked. But this does not give its government the right to draft men into military service—which is the most blatantly statist violation of a man’s right to his own life..."
~ Ayn Rand, "The Roots of War," For the New Intellectual, 40
