Vesa Välinen

“That, precisely, is the deadliness of second-handers. They have no concern for facts, ideas, work. They're concerned only with people. They don't ask: 'Is this true?' They ask: 'Is this what others think is true?' Not to judge, but to repeat. Not to do, but to give the impression of doing. Not creation, but show. Not ability, but friendship. Not merit, but pull. What would happen to the world without those who do, think, work, produce? Those are the egotists. You don't think through another's brain and you don't work through another's hands. When you suspend your faculty of independent judgment, you suspend consciousness. To stop consciousness is to stop life.”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

“A quest for self-respect is proof of its lack”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

“What is kinder--to believe the best of people and burden them with a nobility beyond their endurance--or to see them as they are, and accept it because it makes them comfortable?”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

“how did you do it? How did you manage to remain unmangled?"
"By holding on to just one rule."
"Which?"
"To place nothing-nothing-above the verdict of my own mind.”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead