Quotes from book
Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged is a 1957 novel by Ayn Rand. Rand's fourth and final novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing. Atlas Shrugged includes elements of science fiction, mystery, and romance, and it contains Rand's most extensive statement of Objectivism in any of her works of fiction.

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“Don't think of them now. Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them. You're here. It's our time and our life, not theirs. Don't struggle not to be happy. You are."

- John Gault”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

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“I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand photo

“Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand photo

“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 book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand photo

“What greater wealth is there than to own your life and to spend it on growing? Every living thing must grow. It can't stand still. It must grow or perish.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

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“He liked to observe emotions; they were like red lanterns strung along the dark unknown of another's personality, marking vulnerable points.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand photo

“Do it first and feel about it afterwards.' - Dagny Taggart”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand photo

“Fransisco, you're some kind of very high nobility, aren't you?" He answered, "Not yet. The reason my family has lasted for such a long time is that none of us has ever been permitted to think he is born a d'Anconia. We are expected to become one.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

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“I am, therefore I'll think”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Variant: I think, therefore I'll think.
Source: Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand photo

“It meant nothing to him any longer, only a faint tinge of sadness--and somewhere within him, a drop of pain moving briefly and vanishing, like a raindrop on the glass of a window, its course in the shape of a question mark.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

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“Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be left waiting for us in our graves-or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

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“I'll give you a hint. 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 book Atlas Shrugged

Variant: 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.
Source: Atlas Shrugged

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“I do not seek the good of others as a sanction for my right to exist, nor do I recognize the good of others as a justification for their seizure of my property or their destruction of my life.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

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“Joy is the goal of existence, and joy is not to be stumbled upon, but to be achieved, and the act of treason is to let its vision drown in the swamp of the moment's torture.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

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“If one's actions are honest, one does not need the predated confidence of others.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

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“I never found beauty in longing for the impossible and never found the possible to be beyond my reach.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

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“The most depraved type of human being… (is) the man without a purpose.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Variant: Fransisco, what's the most depraved type of human being?

-The man without purpose.
Source: Atlas Shrugged

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“Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand photo

“John Galt is Prometheus who changed his mind. After centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought to men the fire of the gods, he broke his chains—and he withdrew his fire—until the day when men withdraw their vultures.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

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