Anthem

by Ayn Rand

Home of the Useless.

Home of the Infants

Transgression of Preference, to love any among men better than the others, since we must love all men and all men are our friends.

We know, when we look into each other’s eyes. And when we look thus without words, we both know other things also, strange things for which there are no words, and these things frighten us.

“The will of the Council is above all things, for it is the will of our brothers, which is holy.

The will of the council was the will of all.

For men are forbidden to take notice of women, and women are forbidden to take notice of men.

Everything which comes from the many is good. Everything which comes from one is evil.

I wished to know the meaning of things.

I am the meaning. I wished to find a warrant for being.

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

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.

guard my treasures:

my thought, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom.

What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it? What is my wisdom, if even the fools can dictate to me? What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and the impotent, are my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and to obey?

I have read of a man who lived many thousands of years ago, and of all the names in these books, his is the one I wish to bear. He took the light of the gods and he brought it to men, and he taught men to be gods. And he suffered for his deed as all bearers of light must suffer. His name was Prometheus.”

Critter note. Galactic humans could be a Promethian force.

To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.

Critter reference.

At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their chains. He was enslaved by his birth, by his kin, by his race. But he broke their chains.

He declared to all his brothers that a man has rights which neither g...

men can take away from him, no matter what their number, for his is the right of man, and there is no ri...