Galt believes that people must pursue their own self-interest — that the requirements of a person's existence necessitate that he seek his own values. Galt opposes any form of self-sacrifice or the renunciation of one's values. In Galt's philosophy, living by sacrificing one's values is impossible; life requires attaining those values. The code of self-sacrifice — whether the sacrifice is to God, society, or something else — is the code of death. Men who try to live by self-sacrifice end up destroying themselves.
Galt states that man needs political freedom to apply his intellect to pursuing the values that his life requires. He defends laissez-faire capitalism as the only political/economic system that recognizes man's need for liberty and the only system that protects his right to use his mind independently. Galt is opposed to socialism, fascism, communism, or any other type of system that tyrannizes the mind of man. The essence of his philosophy is that the mind is the source of human well-being, and the mind must be free.
