V. D.

“If it were true, that old legend about appearing before a supreme judge and naming one’s record, I would offer, with all my pride, not any act I committed, but one thing I have never done on this earth: that I never sought an outside sanction. I would stand and say: I am Gail Wynand, the man who has committed every crime except the foremost one: that of ascribing futility to the wonderful act of existence and seeking justification beyond myself. This is my pride: that now, thinking of the end, I don not cry like all the men of my age: but what was the use and the meaning? I was the use and meaning. I, Gail Wynand. That I lived and that I acted.”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

“Now understand me well--it is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary. [from "Song of the Open Road"]”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“To caress the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten away our heart.”
― Voltaire, Candide, or, Optimism