Friday, September 25, 2009

Atlas doesn't shrug in my mind even after weeks.


These quotes continue to come back to me over and over in these past weeks as I reflect on my recent journey through Atlas Shrugged.  Many of these ideas present contradictions to my subconcious ideals about the world as I know it(as I learned it in school and church),  yet they are so blatantly obvious and simple.  When I couple these concepts of accountability with my deep seated desire to love and encourage others to succeed I think I begin to make just a little sense of my world.  I don't know all of the answers, but I know for sure that I indeed want to live.  What an awesome book, for anyone who wants to seriously reflect on himself, and our world today.

"Who is John Galt?"

“For if there is more tragic a fool than the businessman who doesn’t know that he is an exponent of man’s highest creative spirit, it is the artist who thinks that the businessman is his enemy.“ Composer Richard Halley

"Who is the public? What does it hold as its good? There was a time when men believed that 'the good' was a concept to be defined by a code of moral values and that no man had the right to seek his good through the violation of the rights of another. If it is now believed that men may sacrifice me in any manner they please for the sake of whatever they deem to be their own good, if they believe that they may seize my property simply because they need it - well, so does any burglar." Hank Reardon


"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." THE OATH

"Existence is Identity,  Consciousness is Identification" John Galt

"My morality, the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom: existence exists----and in a single  choice: to live. The rest proceeds from these.  To live, man must hold three things as the supreme and ruling values of his life:  Reason----Purpose----Self-Esteem." John Galt

"The only man who desires to be moral is the man who desires to live.  No, you do not have to live; it is your basic act of choice; but if you choose to live, you must live as a man---by the work and the judgement of your mind." John Galt

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