Ayn Rand

"Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness."

"Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?"

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."

"A culture is made — or destroyed — by its articulate voices."

"Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values."

"The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity."

"Why do they always teach us that it's easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It's the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want."

"Aristotle may be regarded as the cultural barometer of Western history. Whenever his influence dominated the scene, it paved the way for one of history's brilliant eras; whenever it fell, so did mankind."

"Man is an end in himself."

"A moment or an eternity—did it matter? Life, undefeated, existed and could exist."