Quotes About Self-reliance

Every honest man lives for himself. Every man worth calling a man lives for himself. The one who doesn't - doesn't live at all.

I covet no man's soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.

You don't know how hard I've tried to be left standing all by myself.

Nothing is given to man on earth. Everything he needs has to be produced. And here man faces his basic alternative: he can survive in only one of two ways—by the independent work of his own mind or as a parasite fed by the minds of others. The creator originates. The parasite borrows. The creator faces nature alone. The parasite faces nature through an intermediary.

I don't make comparisons. I never think of myself in relation to anyone else. I just refuse to measure myself as part of anything. I'm an utter egotist.

If you want my advice, Peter, you've made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?

You don't have to see through the eyes of others, hold onto yours, stand on your own judgment, you know that what is, is—say it aloud, like the holiest of prayers, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

the best is a matter of standards—and I set my own standards.

I am a man who does not exist for others.

A truly selfish man cannot be affected by the approval of others. He doesn't need it.

Do not let the hero in your soul perish...

I take the only desire one can really permit oneself. Freedom, Alvah, freedom." "You call that freedom?" "To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.

A man who seeks escape from the responsibility of supporting his life by his own thought and effort, and wishes to survive by conquering, ruling and exploiting others, is NOT an Individualist.

Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth, the man who would make his fortune no matter where he started.

Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a sacrifice on their altars.

It's not a question of who will allow me to do it, it's a question of who will stop me.

Man is an end in himself.

A right doesn't include the material implementation of that right by other men; it includes only the freedom to earn that implementation by one's own effort.

There was a great satisfaction to be found in the food which we need and obtain by our own hand.

It was a long story and the spirt which moved it was the spirit of man's freedom. But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's 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. ~Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), pg 101

A man of self respect doesn't turn into a milch cow for anybody.

I don't want to fight for the people, I don't want to fight against the people, I don't want to hear of the people. I want to be left alone—to live.

The sacred word: EGO

You don't care what others think - which might be understandable. But you don't care even to make them think as you do? No. But that's...that's monstrous. Is it? Probably. I couldn't say.