Atlas Shrugged, Part 3 Chapter 1: Atlantis
Summary: Dagny crash lands in the Gulch, and meets John Galt (and others). She takes a tour, and hears their stories.
Start by reading the first-tier comments, which are all quotes of Ayn Rand (some of my favorites, some just important for other reasons). Comment on your favorite ones, or others' comments. Don't see your favorite quote? Post it in a new comment. Please reserve new comments for Ayn Rand, and your non-Rand quotes for "replies" to the quotes or discussion. (Otherwise Rand's quotes will get crowded out and pushed down into oblivion. You can help avoid this by "voting up" the Rand quotes, or at least the ones you especially like, and voting down first-tier comments that are not quotes of the featured book.)
Atlas Shrugged was written by Ayn Rand in 1957.
My idea for this post is discussed here:
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts...
Start by reading the first-tier comments, which are all quotes of Ayn Rand (some of my favorites, some just important for other reasons). Comment on your favorite ones, or others' comments. Don't see your favorite quote? Post it in a new comment. Please reserve new comments for Ayn Rand, and your non-Rand quotes for "replies" to the quotes or discussion. (Otherwise Rand's quotes will get crowded out and pushed down into oblivion. You can help avoid this by "voting up" the Rand quotes, or at least the ones you especially like, and voting down first-tier comments that are not quotes of the featured book.)
Atlas Shrugged was written by Ayn Rand in 1957.
My idea for this post is discussed here:
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts...
She said, looking at the words, “This has always been my own rule of living.”
“I know it.”
“But I don’t think that yours is the way to practice it.”
“Then you’ll have to learn which one of us is wrong.”
I personally embrace the vow (I renounce slavery and the Code of Death), but am willing to live temporarily under this inverted morality that American society (inconsistently) is. I invest most of my time accumulating resources (assets, capital), and I invest some of my time seeking political reform. Eventually, unless things turn around here, I will want to seek a new place to live with more protection of our freedoms, even if that means our own Objectivist Gulch.
“I call it Mulligan’s Valley,” he said. “The others call it Galt’s Gulch.”
“I’d call it – ” but she did not finish.
“We are on strike,” said John Galt… “This is the strike of the men of the mind, Miss Taggart. This is the mind of strike.”
“Mulligan mints that, too, in silver. We don’t accept any other currency in this valley. We accept nothing but objective values.”
Both coins had the Liberty. I don't mind it. The Gulchers were on strike of what the US had become. But they in the Gulch affirmed many of the founding principles that the US started with, and principles of freedom which the Statue expressed.
“That’s the only sort of men I like to hire. Dagny, have you lived too long among the looters? Have you come to think that one man’s ability is a threat to another?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m producing everything I need, I’m working to improve my methods, and every hour I save is an hour added to my life.”
“They’re all aristocrats, that’s true,” said Wyatt, “because they know that there’s no such thing as a lousy job – only lousy men who don’t care to do it.”
“Yes.”
“You told them that you would stop the motor of the world.”
“I have.”
“What have you done?”
“I’ve done nothing, Miss Taggart. And that’s the whole of my secret.”
“Oh!... Yes… But I named it after an enemy.”
He smiled. “That’s the contradiction you had to resolve sooner or later, Miss Taggart.”
“It was you… wasn’t it? … who destroyed my Line…”
“Why, no. It was the contradiction.”
“You know me?” Her voice was impersonal and hard.
“I’ve known you for many years.”
“Have I known you?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“What is your name?”
“John Galt.”