On Writing One's Life Story:
When his efforts are not stifled by government policy but are instead allowed to flower as fully as possible through personal choices among real world opportunities, the individual's life becomes a unique story, written as it is lived, and rewritten creatively as fate and fortune demand.

Freedom's claim on behalf of the sovereignty of the individual simply recognizes his undeniable existence as an agent of choice and initiative and asserts further that there is no justification for his enslavement by anyone else, including a government.  The efforts of any citizen to pursue his personal dream while respecting the equal rights of others to do the same is not narcissism or selfishness or greed, but an expression of rational self-interest consistent with the nature of man.  In fact, in a free society, rational self-interest strongly recommends consideration of others, since it is in one's self-interest to please others and to serve them well.  The entrepreneur who realizes his self-interested dream of a business empire does so by pleasing customers with products as he pleases employees with jobs.  Similarly, the individual in search of gratifying relationships seeks to please others as he pleases himself.  The long term congruence of rational self-interest and community interest is inherent in the human condition, as Hazlitt has so forcefully argued.