The Middle Ages were an era of mysticism, ruled by blind faith and blind obedience to the dogma that faith is superior to reason. The Renaissance was specifically the rebirth of reason, the liberation of man's mind, the triumph of rationality over mysticism - a faltering, incomplete, but impassioned triumph that led to the birth of science, of individualism, of freedom. If physical force is to be barred from social relationships, men need an institution charged with the task of protecting their rights under an objective code of rules. A government is the means of placing the retaliatory use of physical force under objective control - i.e., under objectively defined laws. Just as life is an end in itself, so every living human being is an end in himself, not the means to the ends or the welfare of others - and, therefore, man must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself.
Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see. Howard Roark laughed. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won.