#individualism

“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.”

“And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: 'I.'”

“I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.”

“I am. I think. I will.”

“A moment or an eternity”

“The highest thing in a man is not his god. It's that in him which knows the reverence due a god. You are my highest reverence. Last Page”

“There is only one thing that matters and that we'll remember. The rest doesn't matter. I don't care what life is to be nor what it does to us. But it won't break us. Neither you nor me. That's our only weapon. That's the only banner we can hold against all those others around us. That's all we have to know about the future.”

“There is no such thing as duty. If you know that a thing is right, you want to do it. If you don't want to do it”

“Do you believe in God, Andrei? No. Neither do I. But that's a favorite question of mine. An upside”

“I hope you will understand my hesitation in writing to one whom I admire as the greatest representative of a philosophy to which I want to dedicate my whole life. Letter to H.L. Mencken July 28, 1934.”