“The basic political principle of the Objectivist ethics is: no man may initiate the use of physical force against others…Men have the right to use physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use…The only proper, moral purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence—to protect his right to his own life, to his own liberty, to his own property and to the pursuit of his own happiness.”

in Ayn Rand, Objectivism, Writers