Fiction
"Mr. Rearden, if you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders—what would you tell him to do?"
- Francisco, Atlas Shrugged
"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."
- John Galt, Atlas Shrugged
No Gods or Kings. Only Man.
"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."
- Andrew Ryan, BioShock
"On the surface, I once bought a forest. The Parasites claimed that the land belonged to God, and demanded that I establish a public park there. Why? So the rabble could stand slack-jawed under the canopy and pretend that it was paradise earned. When Congress moved to nationalize my forest, I burnt it to the ground. God did not plant the seeds of this Arcadia; I did."
- Andrew Ryan, BioShock
"Iron Man's ideology is the heroism in selfishness."
Real-Life
"I have always found it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough."
- Christopher Hitchens
"An invention is a responsibility of the individual, society cannot invent, it can only applaud the invention and inventor."
- Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words
