Quote

Self-esteem is reliance on one's power to think... The man of authentic self-confidence is the man who relies on the judgment of his own mind.

Ayn Rand

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Ayn Rand
Age: 77 †
Born: 1905
Born: February 2
Died: 1982
Died: March 6
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Philosopher
Playwright
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
St. Petersburg
Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum
Thinking
Esteem
Confidence
Judgment
Power
Self
Relies
Mind
Reliance
Men
Authentic
Think
Rely

More quotes by Ayn Rand

Image
Your soul has a single basic function-the act of valuing.
Ayn Rand
Image
The more neurotic and evasive a person is, the shorter the range of his interests.
Ayn Rand
Image
Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.
Ayn Rand
Image
Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.
Ayn Rand
Image
Freedom, in a political context, means freedom from government coercion. It does not mean freedom from the landlord, from the employer, or freedom from the laws of nature which do not provide men with automatic prosperity. It means freedom from the coercive power of the state ' and nothing else
Ayn Rand
Image
Men prosper or fail, survive or perish in proportion to the degree of their rationality.
Ayn Rand
Image
A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving.
Ayn Rand
Image
And here, over the portals of my fort, I shall cut in the stone the word which is to be my beacon and my banner. The word which will not die should we all perish in battle. The word which can never die on this earth, for it is the heart of it and the meaning and the glory. The sacred word: EGO
Ayn Rand
Image
In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.
Ayn Rand
Image
Through the dry phases of calculations in her mind, she noticed that she did have time to feel something: it was the hard, exhilarating pleasure of action.
Ayn Rand
Image
A rational man knows-or makes it a point to discover-the source of his emotions, the basic premises from which they come.
Ayn Rand
Image
My dear fellow, who will let you? That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?
Ayn Rand
Image
Selfishness does not mean only to do things for one's self. One may do things, affecting others, for his own pleasure and benefit. This is not immoral, but the highest of morality.
Ayn Rand
Image
Do it first and feel about it afterwards.' - Dagny Taggart
Ayn Rand
Image
The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life.
Ayn Rand
Image
There can be no compromise on moral principles.
Ayn Rand
Image
You know, I think that only if one feels immensely important can one feel truly light.
Ayn Rand
Image
Fransisco, you're some kind of very high nobility, aren't you? He answered, Not yet. The reason my family has lasted for such a long time is that none of us has ever been permitted to think he is born a d'Anconia. We are expected to become one.
Ayn Rand
Image
Creation comes before distribution - or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement.
Ayn Rand
Image
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.
Ayn Rand