As a human being, you have no choice about the fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation──or let your subconscious accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your subconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy……One of the most dangerous things a man can do is to surrender his moral autonomy to others……

The assignment I gave myself for tonight is not to sell you on my philosophy, but on philosophy as such. I have, however, been speaking implicitly of my philosophy in every sentence……Formally, I call it Objectivism, but informally I call it a philosophy for living on earth……You will find an explicit presentation of it in my books, particularly in Atlas Shrugged.

──艾恩蘭德（Ayn Rand）