He was described as the literary leader of the age, but had never written a book that sold more than three thousand copies.
God, I’ve missed you!” he said, and knew that he had, every day since he’d seen her last and most of all, perhaps on the days when he had not thought of her.
A truly selfish man cannot be affected by the approval of others. He doesn’t need it.
A thing is not high if one can reach it; it is not great if one can reason it; it is not deep if one can see its bottom.
He belonged in the countryside, she thought – he belonged everywhere – he was a man who belonged on earth – and then she thought of the words which were more exact: he was a man to whom the earth belonged, the man at home on earth and in control.
The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them.
The naked shoulder was gown’s only ornament.
The Council of American Builders met once a month and engaged in no tangible activity beyond listening to speeches and sipping an inferior brand of root beer. Its membership did not grow fast in quantity or quality. There were no concrete results achieved.
It’s as if they’d heard that there are values one is supposed to honor and this is what one does to honor them – so they went through the motions, like ghosts pulled by some sort of distant echoes from a better age.
I think that your sister is awful. I think it’s disgusting-a woman acting like a grease-monkey and posing around like a big executive. It’s so unfeminine. Who does she think she is, anyway?
I threw it down the air shaft. There’s a concrete floor below.
No gift is worth a damn, unless its the most precious thing you’ve got.
No matter what night preceded it, she had never known a morning when she did not feel the rose of a quiet excitement that became a tightening energy on her body and a hunger for action in her mind – because this was the beginning of a day and it was a day of HER life.
This, my body and spirit, this is the end of the quest. I wished to know the meaning of things. I am the meaning. I wished to find a warrant for being. I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.
If I can’t, then that would make it an absolute and you said there aren’t any absolutes.” “That’s different.” “How is it different?” “It’s the government.” “You mean, there aren’t any absolutes except the government?” “I mean, if they say it’s important, then it is.
What I described last,” said Francisco, “is any man who proclaims his right to a single penny of another man’s effort.
We will build a society dedicated to higher ideals, and we will replace the aristocracy of money by – ” “ – the aristocracy of pull,” said a voice beyond the group. They whirled around. The man who stood facing them was Francisco d’Anconia.
My dear fellow, who will let you?” “That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?
Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists. It is real. It is possible. It’s yours.
The essential characteristic of socialism is the denial of individual property rights...