Atlas Shrugged

“That’s what’s strange about him. I know that he’s a liar, a loafer, a cheap playboy, the most viciously irresponsible waste of a human being I ever imagined possible. Yet, when I look at him, I feel that if ever there was a man to whom I would entrust my life, he’s the one.”

“Times change, and people change with the times—the wise ones do. Wisdom lies in knowing when to remember and when to forget. Consistency is not a habit of mind which it is wise to practice or to expect of the human race.”

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

“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.”

Any refusal to recognize reality, for any reason whatever, has disastrous consequences. There are no evil thoughts except one: the refusal to think. Don’t ignore your own desires, Mr. Rearden. Don’t sacrifice them. Examine their cause.

You keep pushing out of your mind the thoughts which you believe to be evil. They do it, because they want to avoid effort.

Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”

Intelligence? It is such a rare, precarious spark that flashes for a moment somewhere among men, and vanishes. One cannot tell its nature, or its future . . . or its death. . . .”

“Free scientific inquiry? The first adjective is redundant.”