“Eventually, the question you ask stops being ‘Who is John Galt?’ and becomes ‘When will John Galt shut up?’”
– Anonymous, not so subtly critiquing Galt’s 56-page long speech in Atlas Shrugged

Who is John Galt? And why should you care about Atlas Shrugged quotes?

Atlas Shrugged tells the story of Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive living in a United States that is on the verge of economic collapse. The government is increasingly expanding its control over private enterprise, choking it out of existence; Dagny’s friend and childhood love Francisco d’Anconia may soon lose his family’s copper company as the Mexican government nationalizes it; and Hank Rearden, who refuses to sell his revolutionary Rearden Metal to the government, subsequently learns his invention has been condemned by the same for no real reason.

To summarize the magnum opus of Ayn Rand – or spoil its ending by revealing Galt’s identity – in so few words would be a sin. The lengthy book is worth a cover-to-cover read for its extensive exploration of Objectivism, Rand’s own philosophy which conceives of man as a heroic being whose greatest moral purpose is the achievement of his own happiness: to make one’s life one’s own life. If you have ever bristled when bureaucrats demanded greater control over the private sector for the good of society, Atlas Shrugged will explain exactly why you felt that way.

Oddly enough, many people bristle at the mere mention of Ayn Rand. They may describe her as a reactionary, an extremist who categorically rejects any government interference in private life as the result of her having been exposed to the worst excesses of communism while growing up in Russia. One might argue in turn that Rand already saw the ending of the story and didn’t wish to see it again.

Again, please read the book – or, barring that, please read our own collection of Atlas Shrugged quotes.

 

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John Galt Quotes, Dagny Taggart Quotes, and More from Atlas Shrugged

• “If you don’t know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.”
• “Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all.”
• “What is man? He’s just a collection of chemicals with delusions of grandeur.”

READ MORE HERE

 

Do not cry that it is our duty to serve you. We do not recognize such duty. Do not cry that you need us. We do not consider need a claim. Do not cry that you own us. You don’t. – Ayn Rand

I first picked up a copy of Atlas Shrugged so I could destroy it at a book barbecue hosted by my local chapter of the Starbucks barista union. I wound up hanging onto it because I love video games and wanted to post a photo of the cover to r/bioshock. (I had 8.7 million karma at the time.)

I had always been told that the book is long-winded and boring by my liberal arts college professors. (They should know.) But I was already hooked after reading the first sentence: “Who is John Galt?” Perhaps this “John Galt” character would prove central to the plot later on. I resolved to find out.

But strange things started happening to me as I followed Dagny Taggart around on her adventures. I began to doubt whether the government bureaucrats’ efforts to throttle innovation and industry were really for the public good. Could such dull and dishonest people truly only be looking out for their own interests? I kept reading. I needed answers.

After I had finished what felt like 3,000 pages of John Galt’s legendary monologue, I saw everything clearly for the first time in my life. I quit my job at Starbucks, deleted my Reddit account, and dropped out of liberal arts college. I developed a new line of NFTs themed around Objectivism, made $180 million in two days, and then used that money to fund my newly discovered purpose in life: sabotaging copper mines.

Thank you, Ayn Rand!

Unlock the Mystery: Introducing the ‘Who Is John Galt?’ Design Via TPB

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