Atlas Shrugged

by Ayn Rand

There is no necessity for pain—why, then, is the worst pain reserved for those who will not accept its necessity?—we

“Francisco, what’s the most depraved type of human being?” “The man without a purpose.”

Thought—he told himself quietly—is a weapon one uses in order to act. No action was possible. Thought is the tool by which one makes a choice.

For the moment, there was no future. They had earned the present.

It was the greatest sensation of existence: not to trust, but to know.

“But the law compels you to volunteer a defense!”

“There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.

In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win.

Whoever regards this as human and right, has no right to the title of ‘human.’