Ayn Rand - Anthem (1938)

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And that night we knew that to hold the body of women in our arms in neither ugly nor shameful, but the one ecstasy granted to the race of men.

Ayn Rand
Whatever road I take, the guiding star is within me; the guiding star and the loadstone which point the way. They point in but one direction. They point to me.

Ayn Rand
Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which men are capable, the spirit of man will remain alive on this earth. It may sleep, but it will awaken. It may wear chains, but it will break through.

Ayn Rand
For they have nothing to fight me with, save the brute force of their numbers. I have my mind.

Ayn Rand
Your eyes are as a flame, but our brothers have neither hope nor fire. Your mouth is cut of granite, but our brothers are soft and humble. Your head is high, but our brothers cringe. You walk, but our brothers crawl. We wish to be damned with you, rather than blessed with all our brothers. Do as you please with us, but do not send us away from you.

Ayn Rand
Our dearest one. Fear nothing of the forest. There is no danger in solitude. We have no need of our brothers. Let us forget their good and our evil, let us forget all things save that we are together and that there is joy as a bond between us. Give us your hand. Look ahead. It is our own world, Golden One, a strange, unknown world, but our own.

Ayn Rand
But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years of transition, long ago, that men did not see whither they were going, and went on, in blindness and cowardice, to their fate. I wonder, for it is hard for me to conceive how men who knew the word "I," could give it up and not know what they lost. But such has been the story, for I have lived in the City of the damned, and I know what horror men permitted to be brought upon them.

Ayn Rand
We are one...alone...and only...and we love you who are one...alone...and only. We looked into each other's eyes and we knew the breath of a miracle had touched us, and fled, and left us groping vainly. And we felt torn, torn for some word we could not find.

Ayn Rand
No one's happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to destroy.

Ayn Rand
What whip lashed them to their knees in shame and submission? The worship of the word "We.

Ayn Rand
I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.

Ayn Rand
And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: 'I.'

Ayn Rand
I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire.

Ayn Rand
But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.

Ayn Rand
This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before... The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of spirit.

Ayn Rand
The word which can never die on this earth, for it is the heart of it and the meaning and the glory. The sacred word: EGO.

Ayn Rand
I understood that centuries of chains and lashes will not kill the spirit of man nor the sense of truth within him.

Ayn Rand
No single one can possess greater wisdom than the many scholars who are elected by all the men for their wisdom. Yet we can. We do. We have fought against saying it, but now it is said. We do not care. We forget all men, all laws and all things save our metals and our wires. So much is still to be learned! So long a road lies before us, and what care we if we must travel it alone!

Ayn Rand
It is not good to feel too much joy, nor to be glad that our body lives. For we matter not and it must not matter to us whether we live or die, which is to be as our brothers will it. But we, Equality 7-2521, are glad to be living. If this is a vice, then we wish no virtue.

Ayn Rand
Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds, I am not a sacrifice on their altars.

Ayn Rand
For the coming of that day shall I fight, I and my sons and my chosen friends. For the freedom of Man. For his rights. For his life. For his honor.

Ayn Rand
Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy: "I will it!

Ayn Rand
It is my eyes which see, and the sight of my eyes grants beauty to the earth. It is my ears which hear, and the hearing of my ears gives its song to the world. It is my mind which thinks, and the judgement of my mind is the only searchlight that can find the truth. It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is the only edict I must respect.

Ayn Rand
Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt.

Ayn Rand
There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.

Ayn Rand