A man's spirit is his self. That entity which is his consciousness. To think, to feel, to judge, to act are functions of the ego.

No one's happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to destroy.

Man is an end in himself.

and the desire would never be satisfied, except by a being of equal greatness.

This, my body and spirit, this is the end of the quest. I wished to know the meaning of things. I am the meaning. I wished to find a warrant for being. I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.

It's a law of survival, isn't it?—to seek the best. I didn't come for your sake. I came for mine.

The egotist in the absolute sense is not the man who sacrifices others. He is the man who stands above the need of using others in any manner. He does not function through them. He is not concerned with them in any primary matter. Not in his aim, not in his motive, not in his thinking, not in his desires, not in the source of his energy. He does not exist for any other man—and he asks no other man to exist for him.

You'll get everything society can give a man. You'll keep all the money. You'll take any fame or honor anyone might want to grant. You'll accept such gratitude as the tenants might feel. And I—I'll take what nobody can give a man, except himself.

There's no surer way to destroy a man than to force him into a spot where he has to aim at not doing his best, where he has to struggle to do a bad job, day after day.

And, after all, you've got to live." "Not that way," said Roark.

I must change in order to change the world. The only revolution with any permanent value takes part in the breast of the individual person.

The perfecting of one's self is the fundamental base of all progress and all moral development.