Atlas Shrugged (Primary source)
In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand explores Objectivism, a philosophy of rational self-interest. The story follows a dystopian United States where successful innovators, led by John Galt, go on strike to protest excessive government regulation and taxation.
“I don’t intend to build in order to have clients. I intend to have clients in order to build.”
— Ayn Rand Primary source“Who will let you? That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?”
— Ayn Rand Primary source“Do not make the mistake of the ignorant who think that an individualist is a man who says: I’ll do as I please at everybody else’s expense. An individualist is a man who recognizes the inalienable individual rights of man—his own and those of others.
— Ayn Rand Primary source“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
— Ayn Rand Primary source“You will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“For what are we born if not to aid one another?”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source