The book depicts a dystopian United States in which heavy industry companies suffer under increasingly burdensome laws and regulations. Railroad executive Dagny Taggart and her lover, steel magnate Hank Rearden, struggle against "looters" who want to exploit their productivity
Atlas Shrugged has had a profound influence on a lot of powerful people, who spend their lives trying to dismantle the institutions that vulnerable people depend on to survive.
Objectivism teaches that the rich should be free to do whatever they want, no matter how many poor people get hurt.
Although her political views are often classified as conservative or libertarian, Rand preferred the term "radical for capitalism". She worked with conservatives on political projects but disagreed with them over issues such as religion and ethics.
Atlas Shrugged challenges many conventional notions about good and evil: that sex is a low, animal desire; that money is the root of evil; that man is sinful by nature. One of the most prominent is the notion that selfishness is evil and self-sacrifice is good.
Rand expounded upon her theory of love as selfish in a 1964 interview for a rather unlikely publication: Playboy. “It is for your own happiness that you need the person you love,” Rand said, “and that is the greatest compliment, the greatest tribute you can pay to that person.”
key virtues aligned with rational self-interest,
rationality, productiveness, honesty, independence, integrity, justice, and pride.
In Atlas Shrugged, the phrase “Who is John Galt?” was a kind of verbal shrug, an expression of a resigned futility in the face of a world falling apart. A despairing admission that things are unknowable and unfixable
By the grace of reality and the nature of life, man — every man — is an end in himself, he exists for his own sake, and the achievement of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose.
Atlas Shrugged tells us that if left unresolved, conflicts between reason and whim can lead even great men and great nations to destruction.
There are similarities between 1984 and Atlas Shrugged, but some big differences too. I like them both but Ayn Rand's work seems more fantastical. Orwell's seems closer to reality in some fundamental way. Her heros are more unreal, like demigods.
During the main storyline of the book, Galt has secretly organized a strike by the world's creative leaders, including inventors, artists and businessmen, in an effort to "stop the motor of the world" and bring about the collapse of the bureaucratic society.
The book explores a number of philosophical themes from which Rand would subsequently develop Objectivism, including reason, property rights, individualism, rational egoism, and laissez-faire capitalism and depicts what Rand saw as the evil of altruism and governmental coercion.
Ayn Rand's famous quotes emphasize rational self-interest, individualism, capitalism, and objective reality, with memorable lines like, "The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me," and "Man—every man—is an end in himself," highlighting her philosophy of Objectivism, advocating for personal achievement, freedom from coercion, and rejecting altruism as a moral duty
In Ayn Rand's philosophy, the most important issue in human life is the supremacy and absolutism of reason. This leads Rand to reject any form of faith or belief in the supernatural, including God, as well as religious moral teachings, which order man to obey authority rather than to pursue his own rational interests.
He is Ayn Rand's concept of ideal man, who is a pure individualist living by his own terms despite what society thinks.
Miss Rand achieved such a bond with her husband, Frank O'Connor. Nowhere was their deep affinity for each other more evident than in their responses to each other's creative work.
In 1954, her close relationship with Nathaniel Branden turned into a romantic affair. They informed both their spouses, who briefly objected, until Rand "sp[u]n out a deductive chain from which you just couldn't escape", in Barbara Branden's words, resulting in her and O'Connor's assent.
A former associate and romantic partner of Ayn Rand, Branden also played a prominent role in the 1960s in promoting Rand's philosophy, Objectivism. Rand and Branden split acrimoniously in 1968, after which Branden focused on developing his own psychological theories and modes of therapy.
"My philosophy is the opposite of hedonism. I hold that one cannot achieve happiness by random, arbitrary or subjective means. One can achieve happiness only on the basis of rational values. By rational values, I do not mean anything that a man may arbitrarily or blindly declare to be rational."
Rand advocated reason and rejected faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism as opposed to altruism and hedonism.
- "The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."
- "Man—every man—is an end in himself."
- "To say 'I love you' one must first be able to say the 'I.'"
- "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."
- "We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality."
- "Reality is an absolute, existence is an absolute, a speck of dust is an absolute and so is a human life."
- "The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it."
- "There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil."
- "Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
- "The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."
- "A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort…is…but a mob held together by institutionalized gang-rule."
- "A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others."
- "Money is the barometer of a society's virtue."
- "Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values."
- 1: “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” ...
- 2: “The task of a rational person is to discover his own values and pursue them.” ...
- 3: “Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.”
Man has to be man — by choice; he has to hold his life as a value — by choice; he has to learn to sustain it — by choice; he has to discover the values it requires and practice his virtues — by choice.
A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.
"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."
There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.
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.
