Quotes from book

Anthem

“There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.”

“I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals and I loathe humanity for its failure to live up to these possibilities.”

“The truth is not for all men but only for those who seek it.”

“My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.”

“Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy: "I will it!”

“The sky is like a black sieve pierced by silver drops that tremble, ready to burst through.”

“Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds, I am not a sacrifice on their altars.”

“I think. I am. I will.”

“I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire.”

“I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.”

“I understood that centuries of chains and lashes will not kill the spirit of man nor the sense of truth within him.”

“This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before…The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of spirit.”

“There is fear hanging in the air of the sleeping halls, and the air of the streets. Fear walks through the city, fear without name, without shape. All men feel it and none dare speak.”

“Today we have discovered the word that could not be said. "I”

“No single one can possess greater wisdom than the many scholars who are elected by all the men for their wisdom. Yet we can. We do. We have fought against saying it, but now it is said. We do not care. We forget all men, all laws and all things save our metals and our wires. So much is still to be learned! So long a road lies before us, and what care we if we must travel it alone!”

“In the temple of his spirit, each man is alone.”

“It is not good to feel too much joy, nor to be glad that our body lives. For we matter not and it must not matter to us whether we live or die, which is to be as our brothers will it. But we, Equality 7-2521, are glad to be living. If this is a vice, then we wish no virtue.”

“And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: 'I.”