Great men can’t be ruled.

Taken at face value, the line asserts that exceptional individuals—those with strong independent judgment and purpose—do not submit their minds or moral agency to external authority. In a Randian frame, “rule” implies coercive control or the demand for unearned obedience; “great men” are those who act from reason and self-chosen values rather than social pressure. The claim is less about practical ungovernability than about spiritual and intellectual sovereignty: greatness is incompatible with secondhandedness. It also functions polemically, contrasting creators and innovators with systems that seek conformity, and suggesting that attempts to dominate such people either fail or destroy the conditions under which greatness is possible.