I take no pride in hopeless longing; I wouldn't hold a stillborn aspiration. I'd want to have it, to make it, to live it.
Ayn RandDegrees of ability vary, but the basic principle remains the same: the degree of a man's independence, initiative and personal love for his work determines his talent as a worker and his worth as a man. Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn't done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence.
Ayn RandBut you see," said Roark quietly, "I have, letโs say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. Iโve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then Iโm only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is a matter of standardsโand I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one.
Ayn RandThese are the things before me. And as I stand here at the door of glory, I look behind me for the last time. I look upon the history of men, which I have learned from the books, and I wonder. It was a long story, and the spirit which moved it was the spirit of manโs freedom. But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a manโs freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. This and nothing else.
Ayn Rand