Atlas Shrugged

"My morality, the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom: existence exists - and in a single choice: to live. The rest proceeds from these.

"To live, man must hold three things as the supreme and ruling values of his life: Reason - Purpose - Self-esteem.

"Reason as his only tool of knowledge - Purpose, as his choice of the happiness which that tool must proceed to achieve - Self-esteem, as his inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means: is worthy of living."

Excerpt from radio address by John Galt - the turning point of the novel.