There is a fundamental conviction which some people never acquire,

There is a fundamental conviction which some people never acquire, some hold
only in their youth, and a few hold to the end of their days-- the conviction
that IDEAS MATTER. In one's youth that conviction is experienced as a
self-evident absolute, and one is unable fully to believe that there are people
who do not share it. That ideas matter means that knowledge matters, that
truth matters, that one's mind matters. And the radiance of that certainty,
in the process of growing up, is the best aspect of youth.
-- Ayn Rand