“If one's actions are honest, one does not need the predated confidence of others.”

“I don't like people who speak or think in terms of gaining anybody's confidence. If one's actions are honest, one does not need the predated confidence of others, only their rational perception. The person who craves a moral blank check of that kind, has dishonest intentions, whether he admits it to himself or not.”

“courage and confidence are practical necessities, that courage is the practical form of being true to existence, of being true to truth, and confidence is the practical form of being true to one's own consciousness.”

“An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced.”

“In a free society, one does not have to deal with those who are irrational. One is free to avoid them.”

“My greatest personal mistake is ever to allow a word or moment that “doesn’t count,” i.e., that I do not refer to my own basic principles. Every word, every action, every moment counts. (This is the pattern on which everybody makes mistakes [or] becomes irrational — not relating their one action or one conviction to another.”

“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.”