I am. I think. I will.

At the beginning of chapter 11, Equality says "I am. I think. I will."
At this point in the novel, Equality has fully realized that the foundation of man's emotions was based on individualistic terms. After he read the texts found in the house, he realized that society was vastly different from the dystopian society he had lived in. Previous societies had emphasized the achievements of the individual, rather than the group. When he read this, he shed tears, not for himself, but for the current condition of humanity. He realized that these "transgressions" and "Sins" he had committed were all natural. In fact, they were apart of human nature. That is why, he thought, he didn't feel any remorse or guilt for the "sins" he had committed.
The basis of this quote is formed on forbidden thinking in the society. Everyone in society learned to refer to themselves as "we" rather than I. This emphasized the common good for the community rather than individualism. However, once Equality learned the existence of the word "I", he fully embraced the lifestyle and thinking of "I"

Ayn Rand Quotes

"If It's worth doing, it's worth overdoing"
Ayn Rand is saying that if something if worth your efforts, then you should put all of your effort into it.
There's two kinds of people in society; those who complete the minimum expectations and get by, and those who put their full effort into everything important to them. To those people, I have a question. If it's worth doing, then why do you barely do it? I guess the answer to that question is, in fact, another question. What is really worth doing? What defines what is worth doing, society, or the individual? Who sets the expectations for your life, and what you do? Do they have a  right to set those expectations?
In order to overdo something, you must have the motivation to overdo it. In order to have this motivation, you must look inside yourself, and see what you really want to do with your life. Only then will we, as a society, put in our fullest effort.

"But why should you car what people say? All you have to do is please yourself."
I can't agree with this quotation any more. Rand is saying that you really shouldn't consider what people say about you. As long as you're happy with yourself, then you're fine. An example of this is how my generation is labeled as the ""me" generation. You can label my generation whatever you want, but when it comes down to it, I know who I really am. Say what you want to say about me, it's not going to affect my life, and how I look at myself. I've come to learn who I am, so such labels don't have such an effect on me. Since I'm pleased with myself, I can care less of any labels people give to me. I'm Brandon Link. I want to see everything the world has to offer, and I want to make the world a better place for others.. Through my motivation for such causes, I'm willing to put in my full effort to attain these feats.

Ecology

"Ecology as a social principle... condemns cities, culture, industry, technology, the intellect and advocates men's return to "nature", to the state of grunting sub-animals digging the soil with their bare hands"
This quote, mentioned by Ayn Rand, refers to the philosophy of environmentalism and its impact on society. Rand chooses to over-examine this concept, saying that in order to truly embrace ecology, we must reject the advances humans have made and conform to our original way of living. I disagree with her interpretation of ecology and environmentalism. I feel that there is a way to combine environmentalist philosophy and modern technological philosophies. Right now, we simply don't have the answer regarding how to combine these two philosophies. Solar energy isn't as efficient as fossil fuel energy... yet... Right now, we are only able to harvest specific wavelengths of the sun's light. If we can learn how to take advantage of more wavelengths of the sun's light, we can make solar energy more efficient, and possibly even replace the popular method of fossil fuels with solar energy. Only when we are able to harvest an eco-friendly source of energy will we be able to conform our society to a different way of living, with accordance to nature.
Until then, we have to find ways to get more Eco-friendly sources of energy. It's not only our responsibility, it's our moral priority. We, as the dominant species have a right to help out the recessive species, and we can't help them out if we become as powerless as them.

Existence

"The Council of Scholars has said that we all know the things which exist and therefore the things which are not known by all do not exist".

I'd say that this statement is driven on a logical fallacy. The logic used here is that if one thing is true, than the opposite must not be true. However, this isn't he case. Elements of the world exist, even if they're not know by man. They are just waiting to be discovered by humanity. Many things in this world haven't been discovered yet, and they're just waiting to cause a revolution in society.

However, the council doesn't want their citizens to know that. The council only wants the citizens to know enough to function in everyday life; nothing more, nothing less. That is how this dystopian society has thrived thus far. Knowledge is power, and in this case, the opposite is, in fact true. The lack of knowledge means the lack of power.

"Self"

What is "Self"? What part of yourself is really yourself? What part of my "self" distinguishes me from others?

I am my "Self". Starting from the mind that resides within my body. All my thoughts, emotions, feelings, and opinions lie in my "self". My inner "self" is obviously influenced by the outside world. In reality, i'm not original. I'm a conglomeration of everybody i know, everybody i've read and watched about, and everybody i've observed. I've taken a little part of everybody else, and put them into myself. Nobody is truly original.
In that sense, we really can't separate ourselves from society. What would we be like if we grew completely independent of society? We wouldn't learn a darn thing. Would we even be able to think, considering we wouldn't even know English?
The only part of my "self" which is not influenced by society is how i feel. I always will feel a certain emotion as a reaction to a given situation. This is why communism doesn't work. Communism and the likes can't stop people from feeling. People will always have emotion, regardless of what laws are set, or what is socially correct. We all have emotion.

Ayn Rand's shenanigans

Ayn Rand, in "The Fountainhead", argues that men never actually seek their own happiness. Illustrating her individualistic view, she states that all standards, efforts, goals and ambitions are set up by society, not the individual. Ayn Rand is proposing an extremist viewpoint o the topic of individual freedom. This statement can be qualified as true, but has several setbacks.
To an extent, our goals are set up by society. According to society, we must go through school, go to college, find a job, and carry on the job until we retire. To an extent this is the lifestyle most men must follow in order to survive. If we don't have a well-paying job, then we can't thrive, let alone survive in today's society.
However, there are notable exceptions to this rule. I have a friend who has a life goal of going into space one day. She plans on majoring in aerospace engineering, and working for NASA. Realistically, it is possible for her to accomplish these goals, considering they flow with society's demands. However, her desire to become an astronaut started when she was a mere kid, before society's expectations could morph her. And even though she currently has a grudge against me, I can still see that she means to stay away from society's expectations of life.
In all, while society sets up the standards for how we should live life, we still have much choice in what we desire, versus what society desires.