アイン・ランドがニーチェの影響を強く受けていることは批評的前提だが，ニーチェ哲学の何を受容したのか，何を拒否したのかについては，多く論じられているわけではない．ニーチェ哲学を構成する概念には，「ディオニュソス的なるもの」，「主知主義批判」，「近代理念批判」，「超人」，「おしまいの人間」，「奴隷道徳」，「位階秩序」，「ルサンチマン」，「永遠回帰」，「権力の意志」などがある．ランドが特に影響を受けたのは，「超人」と「おしまいの人間」と，「奴隷道徳」と「位階秩序」と「ルサンチマン」である．初期の作品から『水源』（The Fountainhead ，1943）や『肩をすくめるアトラス』（Atlas Shrugged ，1957）にいたるまで，ランドが描いたのは，ルサンチマンから生まれた奴隷道徳に疑問を持たない「おしまいの人間」と「超人」の相克だった．しかし，最終的に自身が提唱した思想『客観主義』（Objectivism）において，ランドはニーチェが否定した主知主義と近代理念を祝福した．また，人間を突き動かすディオニュソス的なるものの力をランドは是認しなかった．ランドは，確かにニーチェ哲学から影響を受けている．しかし，ニーチェ哲学の全体を受容したのではなく，断片的に利用しただけと言える．

Ayn Rand as a philosopher and as a writer derived much of her intellectual impulse from Nietzsche. Nietzche’s key ideaes include Apolonian and Dionysian, perspectivism, critique of Socratic rationalism, Ubermensch (overman) and the last man, the slave revolt in morals, master-slave morality, critique of mass culture, eternal return, the will to power, death of God, and nihilism.
Ayn Rand adored that Nietzche projected at a magnifi cenct feelings for man’s greatness. In ethics, there is a signifi cant agreement between Nietzsche and Rand on two major issues: that morality should be in the service of life, and that altruism is anti-life. In politics, they agree that contemporary civilization has serious problems, and that socialism and the welfare state are nauseating.
However, we can assert that the differences between Nietzche and Rand greatly outweigh the similarities. Rand disagreed with Nietzsche by saying that he was a mystic and irrationalist. The central tenets of Objectivism she advocated are that reality exists independently of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive logic, that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness (rational self-interest), and that the only social system consistent with this morality is laissez-faire capitalism that displays full respect for individual rights.
From the Nietzschean view, this type of philosophy is one of the products of Apollonian culture where has been making European culture decadant and unhealthy, because objectivity is in fact just expressions of subjective will. To conclude, Ayn Rand didn't accept Nietzche's philosophy as a whole, though fragments of his ideas are overwhelmingly skillfully exploited in her novels.