“Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.”
Ayn Rand
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.
“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
— Ayn Rand Primary source“Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”
— Ayn Rand Primary source“I don’t intend to build in order to have clients. I intend to have clients in order to build.”
— 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“The wise man draws more advantage from his enemies, than the fool from his friends.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“The imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man.”
— Richard Feynman Primary source“Any man more right than his neighbors, constitutes a majority of one already.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“If a man owns land, the land owns him.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source