In one line: If you haven’t read this one, read it; it’s one of the all-time greats and is exceptional story & character development…I’d argue Ayn Rand’s greatest work.
⁃ QUOTE: “When I do I want to go to heaven and I want to be able to afford the price of admission.” – d’Anconia; “Virtue is the price of admission.” – Jim Taggart (Transcontinental)
⁃ QUOTE: “You should think about the value of your unsolicited opinions to the listener before sharing.” – d’Anconia
⁃ QUOTE: “The code of competency is the only system of morality that’s on a gold standard.” – d’Anconia
⁃ Emotions are the response to the things the world has to offer
⁃ Always be prepared for the things you build in life to be taken away by people who may seem to have no right, or you do not know their own motivations
⁃ When we have open wounds we either figure out how to move forward with it or we don’t
⁃ The history of Science is a progression of exploded fallacies, not of achievements. The more we know, the more we learn that we know nothing. Only the crassest ignoramus can still believe that seeing is believing. That which you see is the first thing to disbelieve. If a scientist sees a stone he knows it is not a stone, but the same as a feather pillow. Both are just a set of whirling particles. — Atlas Shrugged (part 3, chapter 1, the man who belonged on earth)
⁃ QUOTE: “Act first. Keep the mills running. Feel later.” – Hank Rearden
⁃ Part 4 — 39m — The vanity of being right — how can anyone know what’s right and wrong and in the long run it doesn’t matter
⁃ “Wisdom comes from knowing when to remember and when to forget.”
⁃ Mans brain is a social product. A sum of all the experiences of those around him.
⁃ Depravity — moral corruption
⁃ Indignation — anger for unfair treatment
⁃ IDEA: Dagny directives on dealing w change and pain: 1) rest; 2) get the pain out of the way; 3) learn to live without the business [railroad]
⁃ We can never lose the things we live for. We may have to change their forms at times if we make a mistake but their purpose remains the same. — Francisco d’Anconia
⁃ QUOTE: “What’s wealth but the means by expanding ones life.” – Ellis Wyatt
⁃ There’s no meaning in ‘motors, industry, achievements or innovation; their only meaning is in the enjoyment and happiness it creates in a mans life; the radiant vision to see the earth as a place of enjoyment and had known the work of achieving ones happiness was the purpose, ascension and the meaning of life (Dagny on John Galt; 3h 22m – Part 5 – Atlantis)
⁃ John Galt’s oath: “I swear by my life I will never live for the sake of another man, and I will not ask another man to live for the sake of mine.”
⁃ “Justice is acknowledging that which exists.” Judge Narragansett (3h 1m – Atlantis)
⁃ Intransigent — unwilling to change views or agree on something
⁃ It takes enormous power to remain normal amongst the brain destroying indoctrination’s of today’s society – Professor Hugh Akston
⁃ Minerva — the goddess of handicrafts, often identified w Athena, sometimes also as the goddess of war
⁃ “Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose but not power to escape the necessity of choice. If he abdicated his power he abdicated the status of man and the grinding chaos of irrational is what he achieves as his sphere of existence by his own choice.” — Hugh Akston
⁃ Make no concessions in your purpose in life
⁃ “The man who lies to the world is a slave to the world from then on.” – Hank Rearden (Part 6 – Ch3 – Anti-Greed, 4H 40M)
⁃ “If you don’t know, don’t get scared but learn.” – Cheryl Taggart
⁃ “Joy is the goal of existence.” – Hank Rearden
⁃ QUOTE: “An error made on your own is safer than 10 truths accepted on blind faith.” — John Galt
PARTS TO REVISIT:
⁃ RELISTEN: Part 1 3H 25M – 15 mins — d’Anconia and Dagny relationship as kids
⁃ RELISTEN: On Competition, knowledge and philosophy, materialism vs spirituality and greed: Part 1 7H 10M — you must control men to make them free; learn to see beyond the static definitions of old fashioned thinking; nothing is static in the universe;
⁃ RELISTEN: Part 2 – 2H 43M — on thinking as a tool and a weapon
⁃ RELISTEN: Part 3 – 3H 34M — money being the root of evil and the tool of money and mans role in money and the exchange of goods — epic speech
⁃ RELISTEN: Part 4 – 2H 57M — Robin Hood — he is the man that became the symbol that need, not achievement, is the source of rights; that we don’t have to produce, only to want; that the earned does not belong to us but the unearned does; a justification for mediocrity; a double parasite
⁃ RELISTEN: 1H 49M – Chapter 2 – The utopia of greed – Ragnar Danneskjöld on tragedy, suffering, happiness and handling disaster
⁃ RELISTEN: 3H mark — this is John Galt speaking — his whole speech is gold but long as hell
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