Ayn Rand Quotes

The truth is how you say it, and to be 'one's self' is the most shocking custom of all.

Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be from his *true* self and not from the self he thinks he *should* be.

Imitation is very easy, and the whole culture and society depends on imitation. Everybody is telling you how to behave, and whatsoever they are teaching you is nothing but imitation. Religious people - the so-called religious people, the priests, the theologians - they are also teaching you, 'Be like Jesus, be like Buddha, be like Krishna.' Nobody ever tells you, 'Just be yourself' - nobody. Everybody is against you, it seems. Nobody allows you to be yourself, nobody gives you any freedom. You can be in this world, but you must imitate somebody.

Most people are other people.

If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.

At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me.

You cannot live your life looking at yourself from someone else's point of view.

The more time we invest imitating others, the less that's available to discover and be ourselves.

I do have a right to talk about my life, to tell my truth from my perspective.

We all want to be special, to stand out; there's nothing wrong with this. The irony is that every human being is special to start with, because we're unique to start with. But we then go through some sort of boot camp from the age of zero to about 18 where we learn everything we can about how not to be unique.

Yeah, it's nice to look up to people, but the more you try to be somebody else, the less you are of yourself.

I certainly wouldn't want to be a Mini Me of any of the people whose footsteps I've followed in.

When I was 16, I was doing what was popular. If I could go back, I would tell myself to not be afraid to be alone and not to follow others so much.

There's no point in me being something other than me.

I think when you start changing things, you're not being yourself.

Be stupid, be dumb, be funny, if that's who you are. Don't try to be someone that society wants you to be; that's stupid. So be yourself.

I want to be sure I'm being myself. I don't want to follow something because someone's like 'do this, it's popular.'

When you're growing up, the most important thing is to try to not change yourself too much. Be you, because everyone else is taken.

Identity is not negotiable. An identity you have achieved by agreement is always a prison.

It's tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man', says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their life is a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

If knowing yourself and being yourself were as easy to do as to talk about, there wouldn't be nearly so many people walking around in borrowed postures, spouting secondhand ideas, trying desperately to fit in rather than to stand out.

Many people dedicate their lives to actualizing a concept of what they should be like, rather than actualizing themselves. This difference between self-actualization and self-image actualization is very important. Most people live only for their image

Don't imitate. If you want to know who you are, please avoid imitation, that's a way of avoiding knowing yourself.

And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own.

Try to find your individuality, your integrity, and make the effort of not compromising. Because the more you compromise, the less you are an individual. You are only a cog in the wheel, just a part in the vast mechanism, just a small part of the mob - not an individual in your own beauty, in your own right. I am absolutely against compromise. Death is far more beautiful than a life of compromise.