... said, "Good-bye." The stern, stressed calm of her manner was a command that made Rearden follow her back to their car in silence. They were miles beyond the town when he said, not looking at her, his voice desperate and low, "Dagny, Dagny, Dagny ... I'm sorry!" "I'm not." Moments later, when she saw the look of control returning to his face, she said, "Don't ever get angry at a man for stating the...
..., and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had...
..., considers precarious; reason, to him, is a means of deception; he feels that men possess some power more potent than reason-and only their causeless belief or their forced obedience can give him a sense of security, a proof that he has gained control of the mystic endowment he lacked. His lust is to command, not to convince: conviction requires an act of independence and rests on the absolute of an...
... answer you deserve is only: 'Try and get it.' "You proclaim yourself unable to harness the forces of inanimate matter, yet propose to harness the minds of men who are able to achieve the feats you cannot equal. You proclaim that you cannot survive without us, yet propose to dictate the terms of our survival. You proclaim that you need us, yet indulge the impertinence of asserting your right to rule us...
... submit to the rule of brutality. Do you hear me, Francisco d'Anconia and Ragnar Danneskjold, my first friends, my fellow fighters, my fellow outcasts, in whose name and honor I speak? "It was the three of us who started what I am now completing. It was the three of us who resolved to avenge this country and to release its imprisoned soul. This greatest of countries was built on my morality-on the...
..., they said it was I who invented it... . I'll show them!-he had thought, not knowing whether he meant the man on the window sill or the others or the whole of mankind... . His thoughts had become like chips floating in a liquid, without connections: To seize control ... I'll show them! ... To seize control, to rule ... There is no other way to live on earth... . These had been the only words that...
... named the plan in his mind. He had felt that the rest was clear to him-clear in the form of a savage emotion crying defiantly that he did not have to make it clear. He would seize control of Project X and he would rule a part of the country as his private feudal domain. The means? His emotion had answered: Somehow. The motive? His mind had repeated insistently that his motive was terror of Mr...
... shrieks: "We want you to take over! ... We want you to rule! ... We order you to give orders! ... We demand that you dictate! ... We order you to save us! ... We order you to think! ..." They heard no answer but the beating of the heart on which their own lives depended. The current was shooting through Galt's chest and the beating was coming in irregular spurts, as if it were racing and stumbling-when...
... death for him to discover the knowledge. He was looking at the cylinders, the blades, the wires, the control panels still winking with lights. He was struggling not to allow into his mind the thought that was pressing against its periphery: What were the chances and how long would it take-according to the mathematical theory of probability-for primitive men, working by rule-of-thumb, to hit the right...
... Notes What are you going to do about it? Sensational interview with rabbi Abe Finkelstein about Jewish control of the world Table of Contents PART I: NON-CONTRADICTION John Todd's introduction to Atlas Shrugged CHAPTER I THE THEME CHAPTER II THE CHAIN CHAPTER III THE TOP AND THE BOTTOM CHAPTER IV THE IMMOVABLE MOVERS CHAPTER V THE CLIMAX OF THE D'ANCONIAS CHAPTER VI THE NON-COMMERCIAL CHAPTER VII THE...
... EXPLOITERS AND THE EXPLOITED Takeover of Rearden Metal Threat to Rearden and Rearden Metal Troubles for Rearden Metal begin Dr. Robert Stadler puppet The John Galt Line - and do not try to stop me! Sabotage of Rearden mills begins Destruction of steel industry An obscenity of evil CHAPTER VIII THE JOHN GALT LINE They take away the Rearden ore mines, setting up stooges whom they control They take away the...
... Rearden's coal mines The smear campaign - "Hank Rearden is a greedy monster" Attempt to prevent the John Galt Line from starting its operation The opening of the John Galt Line The Illuminati propaganda of "rational" aspect The bestial sex Domination and submission CHAPTER IX THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE We are nothing but beasts What is "good"? Friedrich Nietzsche's "Will to power" CHAPTER X WYATT'S TORCH...
... control of the world by bankrupting their own businesses. The Illuminati owns most, I would say, 99 9/10 of the stores that you walk into and shop, and the gas stations you go to and they are going to destroy them on purpose. They are in the process of buying up the last few years, all the stores they don't own. They bought up Grants and they bankrupted it. They just bought up Two Guys and you can watch...
... for delivery until next month." "And before that, it was due for delivery three months ago." "Unforeseen circumstances. Absolutely beyond Orren's control." "And before that, it was due six months earlier. Jim, we have waited for Associated Steel to deliver that rail for thirteen months." "What do you want me to do? I can't run Orren Boyle's business." "I want you to understand that we can't wait...
.... You have no sense of the human element at all." "We're talking about saving a railroad, Jim." "Yes, of course, of course, but still, you haven't any sense of the human element." "No. I haven't." "If we give Rearden such a large order for steel rails-" "They're not going to be steel. They're Rearden Metal." She had always avoided personal reactions, but she was forced to break her rule when she saw...
... distance. He heard Larkin's voice crying after him, "Damn it, Hank, you shouldn't have given it to him!" Then Lillian's voice came, cold and gay: "But you're wrong, Paul, you're so wrong! What would happen to Henry's vanity if he didn't have us to throw alms to? What would become of his strength if he didn't have weaker people to dominate? What would he do with himself if he didn't keep us around as...
... human control. We had everything mapped to roll those rails, but unforeseen developments set in which nobody could have prevented. If you'd only given us a chance, Jim." "Disunity," drawled James Taggart, "seems to be the basic cause of all social problems. My sister has a certain influence with a certain element among our stockholders. Their disruptive tactics cannot always be defeated." "You said it...
..., they noticed that Taggart had become silent. He seemed preoccupied with a problem of his own. When he rose abruptly, without apology, they rose, too, accepting it as a command. Larkin muttered, smiling too strenuously, "It was a pleasure, Jim. A pleasure. That's how great projects are born-over a drink with friends." "Social reforms are slow," said Taggart coldly. "It is advisable to be patient and...
... government that held complete control of everything. Mexico had a great future, they said, and would become a dangerous competitor in a few years. "Mexico's got discipline," the men of the Board kept saying, with a note of envy in their voices. James Taggart let it be understood-in unfinished sentences and undefined hints-that his friends in Washington, whom he never named, wished to see a railroad line...
... the exact figures computed and submit them to you. I do feel, however, that our stockholders will be justified in expecting that those who bore the major responsibility for this venture should now bear the consequences of their negligence. I would suggest, therefore, that we request the resignation of Mr. Clarence Eddington, our economic consultant, who recommended the construction of the San...
... say?" The young man hesitated and looked more unhappy. "What did he say?" "He said that Senior d'Anconia said that you bore him, Mr. Taggart." The proposal which they passed was known as the "Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule." When they voted for it, the members of the National Alliance of Railroads sat in a large hall in the deepening twilight of a late autumn evening and did not look at one another. The...
... Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule was offered to the vote of the full membership of the National Alliance of Railroads at its annual meeting, it was the first mention of this Rule in public. But all the members had heard of it; it had been discussed privately for a long tune, and more insistently in the last few months. The men who sat in the large hall of the meeting were the presidents of the railroads. They...
... did not like the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule; they had hoped it would never be brought up. But when it was brought up, they voted for it. No railroad was mentioned by name in the speeches that preceded the voting. The speeches dealt only with the public welfare. It was said that while the public welfare was threatened by shortages of transportation, railroads were destroying one another through vicious...
... who voted against it. Yet when the chairman announced that the measure had passed, there was no cheering, no sounds of approval, no movement, nothing but a heavy silence. To the last minute, every one of them had hoped that someone would save them from it. The Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule was described as a measure of "voluntary self-regulation" intended "the better to enforce" the laws long since passed...
... by the country's Legislature. The Rule provided that the members of the National Alliance of Railroads were forbidden to engage in practices defined as "destructive competition"; that in regions declared to be restricted, no more than one railroad would be permitted to operate; that in such regions, seniority belonged to the oldest railroad now operating there, and that the newcomers, who had...
... at all." "I remember. What about it?" "It has been passed." "What has been passed?" "The Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule. Just a few minutes ago. At the meeting. Nine months from now, there's not going to be any Phoenix-Durango Railroad in Colorado!" A glass ashtray crashed to the floor off the desk, as she leaped to her feet. "You rotten bastards!" He stood motionless. He was smiling. She knew that she was...
... office to open without announcement. The man who entered was a stranger. He was young, tall, and something about him suggested violence, though she could not say what it was, because the first trait one grasped about him was a quality of self-control that seemed almost arrogant. He had dark eyes, disheveled hair, and his clothes were expensive, but worn as if he did not care or notice what he wore...
...-Durango was done for the purpose of saving yourself from the necessity of effort, this is to give you notice that you will not get away with it. I made no demands on you when you could not give me the kind of service I needed. I found someone who could. Now you wish to force me to deal with you. You expect to dictate terms by leaving me no choice. You expect me to hold my business down to the level of...
... could not grasp, between her body and something within her that would give her the strength to rule those rails some day. He said brusquely, "Let's see if we can see New York," and jerked her by the arm to the edge of the cliff. She thought that he did not notice that he twisted her arm in a peculiar way, holding it down along the length of his side; it made her stand pressed against him, and she felt...
... given him permission long ago. She thought that she must escape; instead, it was she who pulled his head down to find his mouth again. She knew that fear was useless, that he would do what he wished, that the decision was his, that he left nothing possible to her except the thing she wanted most-to submit. She had no conscious realization of his purpose, her vague knowledge of it was wiped out, she...
... Taggart Transcontinental. His letters were brief, written by hand, usually at night. She was not unhappy in his absence. She, too, was making her first steps toward the control of a future kingdom. Among the leaders of industry, her father's friends, she heard it said that one had better watch the young d'Anconia heir; if that copper company had been great before, it would sweep the world now, under...
... his face, he was smiling down at her confidently, derisively. It was a smile that told her he was in control of himself, of her, of everything, and ordered her to forget what she had seen in that first moment. "Hi, Slug," he said. Feeling certain of nothing except that she must not ask questions, she smiled and said, "Hi, Frisco." She could have understood any change, but not the things she saw...
... stopped writing." "I know." "Then what made you ask that?" "Just an idle thought. What is he doing now? Where is he?" "I don't know. I haven't seen him for a long time. What made you think that there was a Fifth Concerto?" "I didn't say there was. I merely wondered about it." "Why did you think of Richard Halley just now?" "Because"-she felt her control cracking a little-"because my mind can't make the...
... through stupidity, don't you understand that that doesn't make any difference? The same element was missing." She was trembling. Against all her decisions and control, she cried, "Francisco! If you see what's happening in the world, if you understand all the things you said, you can't laugh about it! You, of all men, you should fight them!" "Whom?" "The looters, and those who make world-looting possible...
... of the stairs. The patrician lines of a lemon-yellow Empire evening gown stressed her graceful body, and she stood like a person proudly in control of her proper background. He smiled; he liked to see her happy; it gave some reasonable justification to the party. He approached her-and stopped. She had always shown good taste in her use of jewelry, never wearing too much of it. But tonight she wore...
... thought about the Equalization of Opportunity Bill." "Oh, that?" said Dr. Pritchett. "But I believe I made it clear that I am in favor of it, because I am in favor of a free economy. A free economy cannot exist without competition. Therefore, men must be forced to compete. Therefore, we must control men in order to force them to be free." "But, look ... isn't that sort of a contradiction?" "Not in the...
... silently toward the bartender, to be refilled. He took a gulp from his fresh drink, noticed the empty glass in front of Philip Rearden, who stood beside him, and jerked his thumb in a silent command to the bartender. He ignored the empty glass in front of Betty Pope, who stood at Philip's other side. "Look, bud," said Bertram Scudder, his eyeballs focused approximately in the direction of Philip...
.... But ... Well, I've been trying not to learn which one of them is Bertram Scudder. If I do, I'll slap his face." She tried to sound casual, "I don't want to create a scene, but I'm not sure I'll be able to control myself. I couldn't believe it when somebody told me that Mrs. Rearden had invited him." "I invited him." "But ..." Then her voice dropped. "Why?" "I don't attach any importance to occasions...
... sight could wipe out sound. She moved her head in a slow circle, trying to find an anchor somewhere. She saw Francisco leaning against a column, his arms crossed; he was looking straight at her; he was laughing. Don't shake like this, she thought. Get out of here. This was the approach of an anger she could not control. She thought: Say nothing. Walk steadily. Get out. She had started walking...
... believe the doctrine that this desire was wholly physical, a desire, not of consciousness, but of matter, and he rebelled against the thought that his flesh could be free to choose and that its choice was impervious to the will of his mind. He had spent his life in mines and mills, shaping matter to his wishes by the power of his brain-and he found it intolerable that he should be unable to control the...
..., looking down at Lillian-that he deserved the torture and that he would endure it. Lillian was not looking at him; she was adjusting her hair. "May I go to sleep now?" she asked. She had never objected; she had never refused him anything; she submitted whenever he wished. She submitted in the manner of complying with the rule that it was, at times, her duty to become an inanimate object turned over to...
... to accept it. The bridge, twelve hundred feet of steel across the black gap, was built in the days of Nat Taggart's son. It was long past the stage of safety; it had been patched with stringers of steel, then of iron, then of wood; it was barely worth the patching. She had thought of a new bridge of Rearden Metal. She had asked her chief engineer to submit a design and an estimate of the cost. The...
... other type of bridge. Let me have my engineers work out the basic scheme and submit it to you. No obligation on your part. Just take a look at it and see for yourself whether you'll be able to afford it. You will. Then you can let your college boys work out the details." "What about the Metal?" "I'll get the Metal rolled if I have to throw every other order out of the mills." "You'll get it rolled on...
... Rule," he said angrily. "I think it was the intent and purpose of the National Alliance of Railroads to protect the essential systems, not the jerkwaters of North Dakota. But I can't get the Alliance to vote on it now, because they're all down there, outbidding one another for that rail!" She said slowly, as if she wished it were possible to wear gloves to handle the words, "I see why you want me to...
... the use of Rearden Metal." He added, "It was on the radio. It's in the afternoon papers." "What did they say?" "Dagny, they didn't say it! ... They haven't really said it, yet it's there-and it isn't. That's what's monstrous about it." His effort was focused on keeping his voice quiet; he could not control his words. The words were forced out of him by the unbelieving. bewildered indignation of a...
.... Robert Stadler who had once corrected a student: "Free scientific inquiry? The first adjective is redundant." At the age of forty, Dr. Robert Stadler addressed the nation, endorsing the establishment of a State Science Institute. "Set science free of the rule of the dollar," he pleaded. The issue had hung in the balance; an obscure group of scientists had quietly forced a bill through its long way to...
... encounter intelligence. That I should find it here is such an astonishing relief!" She had come to his office, remembering that sentence. She sat, watching him in the manner of a scientist: assuming nothing, discarding emotion, seeking only to observe and to understand. "Miss Taggart," he said gaily, "I'm curious about you, I'm curious whenever anything upsets a precedent. As a rule, visitors are a...
...." "In this case?" "In any case. Nobody can tell what the course of a country's future may be. It is not a matter of calculable trends, but a chaos subject to the rule of the moment, in which anything is possible." "Do you think that production is necessary to the existence of a country, Dr. Stadler?" "Why, yes, yes, of course." "The building of our branch line has been stopped by the statement of this...
... understanding, "I will submit to you all the information necessary to form a conclusive judgment." "I cannot issue any public statements about it." "Why not?" "The situation is much too complex to explain in a casual discussion." "But if you should find that Rearden Metal is, in fact, an extremely valuable product which-" "That is beside the point." "The value of Rearden Metal is beside the point?" "There are...
... expedient to seize a share of its wealth." "Well, that may be vicious, unjust, calamitous-but such is life in society. Somebody is always sacrificed, as a rule unjustly; there is no other way to live among men. What can any one person do?" "You can state the truth about Rearden Metal." He did not answer. "I could beg you to do it in order to save me. I could beg you to do it in order to avert a national...
.... "I am simply a beggar, Francisco, and I am begging you for money. I had always thought that one did not beg in business. I thought that one stood on the merit of what one had to offer, and gave value for value. This is not so any more, though I don't understand how we can act on any other rule and continue to exist. Judging by every objective fact, the Rio Norte Line is to be the best railroad in...
... you to break me? Wouldn't it give you pleasure? Don't you want to hear me acknowledge that I'm beaten by you? Don't you want to see me crawling before you? Tell me what form of it you'd like and I'll submit." He moved so swiftly that she could not notice how he started; it only seemed to her that his first movement was a shudder. He came around the desk, he took her hand and raised it to his lips...
... watching your dishonor and to which you'll submit for the sake of an unspeakable sensation ... I want you-and may I be damned for it! ... She was reading the papers, leaning back in the darkness-he saw the reflection of the fire touching her hair, moving to her shoulder, down her arm, to the naked skin of her wrist. ... Do you know what I'm thinking now, in this moment? ... Your gray suit and your open...
... was not lowered, but held rigidly level, and her face seemed frozen. Tears were running down her cheeks, with no sound, with no facial movement, against her resistance, beyond control. She saw him and said dryly, guiltily, in apology, "I'm sorry, Mr. Rearden," not attempting the futile pretense of hiding her face. He approached her. "Thank you," he said gently. She looked up at him, astonished. He...
... the black gap of an open door leading down to the underground tunnels of Taggart Transcontinental. * * * * * They take away the Rearden ore mines, setting up stooges whom they control Rearden signed the papers, pushed them across the desk and looked away, thinking that he would never have to think of them again, wishing he were carried to the time when this moment would be far behind him. Paul...
... control, to run the properties extorted from them. I-" "Now why do you want to use such words?" "I might as well tell you-and I think you know it-that I am not good at games of that kind. I have neither the time nor the stomach to devise some form of blackmail in order to tie you up and own my mines through you. Ownership is a thing I don't share. And I don't wish to hold it by the grace of your...
... for pain, no energy for anger. Within a few weeks, it was over; the blinding stabs of hatred ceased and did not return. He was back in confident self-control on the evening when he telephoned Eddie Willers, "Eddie, I'm in New York, at the Wayne-Falkland. Come to have breakfast with me tomorrow morning. There's something I'd like to discuss with you." Eddie Willers went to the appointment with a...
... the cab around her. The fine steel mesh of the ceiling, she thought, and the row of rivets in the corner, holding sheets of steel sealed together-who made them? The brute force of men's muscles? Who made it possible for four dials and three levers in front of Pat Logan to hold the incredible power of the sixteen motors behind them and deliver it to the effortless control of one man's hand? These...
... fashioned any one part of them for the first time. They are alive, she thought, but their soul operates them by remote control. Their soul is in every man who has the capacity to equal this achievement. Should the soul vanish from the earth, the motors would stop, because that is the power which keeps them going-not the oil under the floor under her feet, the oil that would then become primeval ooze again...
... thinking of it, for the pleasure of knowing that I've brought you to this. He was not smiling, his face was tight, it was the face of an enemy, he jerked her head and caught her mouth again, as if he were inflicting a wound. Domination and submission She felt him trembling and she thought that this was the kind of cry she had wanted to tear from him-this surrender through the shreds of his tortured...
... did not name to himself the nature of his own feeling-never to identify his emotions was the only steadfast rule of his life; he merely felt it-and this particular feeling was pleasurable, which was the only identification he cared to know. But the feeling was the product of a thought he would not utter. He had often met girls of the lower classes, who had put on a brash little act, pretending to...
..., what the hell? That's the only way anybody ever gets rich in this world"-he glanced at the luxurious black car-"as you ought to know." "You were telling us about the factory," said Rearden, trying to control himself. "What I can't stand," said Mayor Bascom, "is people who talk about principles. No principle ever filled anybody's milk bottle. The only thing that counts in life is solid, material...
... when we passed the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule-but the disaster has not come." "Because I saved you, you rotten fools! I won't be able to save you this time!" He had shrugged, not looking at her. "And if I don't, who will?" He had not answered. It did not seem real to her, here, under the ground. Thinking of it here, she knew she could have no part in Jim's battle. There was no action she could take...
... two hundred miles an hour. When the vision was within her reach, within the possible, was she to give it up and spend her time bargaining about sixty miles and sixty cars? She could not descend to an existence where her brain would explode under the pressure of forcing itself not to outdistance incompetence. She could not function to the rule of: Pipe down-keep down-slow down-don't do your best, it...
..., trembling under the touch of his fingers. He wished she were back in New York. If she were, he would have gone there, now, at once, in the middle of the night. Eugene Lawson sat at his desk as if it were the control panel of a bomber plane commanding a continent below. But he forgot it, at times, and slouched down, his muscles going slack inside his suit, as if he were pouting at the world. His mouth was...
... audacious gambler, Mulligan said, "The reason why you'll never get rich is because you think that what I do is gambling." It was rumored that one had to observe a certain unwritten rule when dealing with Midas Mulligan: if an applicant for a loan ever mentioned his personal need or any personal feeling whatever, the interview ended and he was never given another chance to speak to Mr. Mulligan. "Why yes...
... railroad cooks in the Rockies." "No. I came for something else." She leaned forward, both forearms braced firmly against the counter, feeling calm and in tight control again, sensing a dangerous adversary. "Did you know, about ten years ago, a young engineer who worked for the Twentieth Century Motor Company?" She counted the seconds of a pause; she could not define the nature of the way he looked at her...
...? For heaven's sake, don't tell me that those Wyatt fields were the only source of oil in the country!" "No, no, but the sudden disappearance of a major supply wrought havoc in the entire oil market. So the government had to assume control and impose oil rationing on the country, in order to protect the essential enterprises. I did obtain an unusually large quota for the Institute-and only by the...
... difficult assignment. "I fully realize your contempt for that branch of science. I do not expect you to solve my problem-it is not the kind of work which you do or care about. I should like only to submit the problem to you, and then I'll have just two questions to ask you. I had to call on you, because it is a matter that involves someone's mind, a very great mind, and"-she spoke impersonally, in the...
... 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. Why, then-she wondered-should he have had to carry a burden of tragedy which, in silent endurance, he had accepted so completely that he had barely known he carried it? She knew part of the answer; she felt as if the whole answer were close and she would grasp it on some...
... traffic control panel, with a few lights scattered through its mountains. One after another, the lights had gone out. One after another, the men had vanished. There had been a pattern about it, which she felt, but could not define; she had become able to predict, almost with certainty, who would go next and when; she was unable to grasp the "why?" Of the men who had once greeted her descent from the cab...
... laughing. Taggart turned to him so sharply that the others melted away without waiting for a command to vanish. "What do you think you're doing?" snapped Taggart. "Having a good time, Jimmy, just having a good time," said Boyle. "Wesley is your boy, wasn't he?" "I know somebody who's my boy and he'd better not forget it." "Who? Larkin? Well, no, I don't think you're talking about Larkin. And if it's not...
... of National Planning-for double-crossing Rearden, at the time of the Equalization of Opportunity Bill. You had the connections to do it, and that's what I asked you to do-in exchange for the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule, where I had the connections. So Wesley did his part, and you saw to it that you got it all on paper-oh sure, I know that you've got written proof of the kind of deals he pulled to help...
... Taggart," said Rearden. Dagny caught her breath, cutting off all but the faint echo of a gasp. They both whirled to him. Lillian saw nothing in "his face; Dagny saw torture. "It isn't necessary, Hank," she said. "It is-for me," he answered coldly, not looking at her; he was looking at Lillian in the manner of a command that could not be disobeyed. Lillian studied his face with mild astonishment, but...
... give him an estimate of the nature of the group's concerns. Fair enough, he thought, one's got to trade something. He knew, but did not care to name just what was being traded. "We arc at the dawn of a new age," said James Taggart, from above the rim of his champagne glass. "We are breaking up the vicious tyranny of economic power. We will set men free of the rule of the dollar. We will release our...
..., and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass...
... Ellis Wyatt. He's the one we lost. Since then, she says, it's been as if the center of gravity were swinging wildly-like in a sinking cargo ship out of control-shifting from industry to industry, from man to man. When we lose one, another becomes that much more desperately needed-and he's the one we lose next. Well, what could be a greater disaster now than to have the country's coal supply left in...
... angrily that this had no connection with the present moment and that she had to control her nerves. But her hand jerked to press the button of the ashtray and make the cigarette stubs vanish inside the stand. As she looked up, her eyes met the glance of the secretary watching her. "I am sorry, Miss Taggart. I don't know what to do about it." It was an openly desperate plea. "I don't dare interrupt...
.... Rearden?" Rearden pointed to the door of his office. "Come in." Turning the lights on in the office, moving with unhurried control, Rearden thought that he must not allow himself to feel anything, but felt the color of life returning to him in the tensely quiet eagerness of an emotion which he would not identify. What he told himself consciously was: Be careful. He sat down on the edge of his desk...
... verdict of your mind, and the purest, the most ruthless consecration to the rule of doing right, of doing the best, the utmost best possible to you. Nothing could have made you act against your judgment, and you would have rejected as wrong-as evil-any man who attempted to tell you that the best way to heat a furnace was to fill it with ice. Millions of men, an entire nation, were not able to deter you...
... uses metal in any way--Rearden Metal has made his life easier for him. Has it made yours easier for you?" "No," said Rearden, his voice low. "Has it left your life as it was before you produced the Metal?" "No-" said Rearden, the word breaking off as if he had cut short the thought that followed. Francisco's voice lashed at him suddenly, as a command: "Say it!" "It has made it harder," said Rearden...
..., who demand that it be the aim of your life to serve them, who demand that your strength be the voiceless, rightless, unpaid, unrewarded slave of their impotence, who proclaim that you are born to serfdom by reason of your genius, while they are born to rule by the grace of incompetence, that yours is only to give, but theirs only to take, that yours is to produce, but theirs to consume, that you are...
... among iron smelters? You who won't allow one per cent of impurity into an alloy of metal-what have you allowed into your moral code?" Rearden sat very still; the words in his mind were like the beat of steps down the trail he had been seeking; the words were: the sanction of the victim. "You, who would not submit to the hardships of nature, but set out to conquer it and placed it in the service of...
... joyous feeling that seemed like a flow of energy added to his own. To the rhythm of his body, with the scorching heat on his face and the winter night on his shoulder blades, he was seeing suddenly that this was the simple essence of his universe: the instantaneous refusal to submit to disaster, the irresistible drive to fight it, the triumphant feeling of his own ability to win. He was certain that...
...." "I do not recognize my action as a crime," "But you have admitted that you have broken our regulations controlling the sale of your Metal." "I do not recognize your right to control the sale of my Metal." "Is it necessary for me to point out that your recognition was not required?" "No. I am fully aware of it and I am acting accordingly." He noted the stillness of the room. By the rules of the...
... back to Rearden. "This is unprecedented," he said. "It is completely irregular," said the second judge. "The law requires you to submit a plea in your own defense. Your only alternative is to state for the record that you throw yourself upon the mercy of the court." "I do not." "But you have to." "Do you mean that what you expect from me is some sort of voluntary action?" "Yes." "I volunteer nothing...
... your fellow businessmen?" "I suppose it was to be expected." His voice tense with the anger of compassion, Francisco said, "It's been twelve years and yet I'm still unable to see it indifferently!" The sentence sounded involuntary, as if, trying to suppress the sound of emotion, he had uttered suppressed words. "Twelve years-since what?" asked Rearden. There was an instant's pause, but Francisco...
... obstruction; the courts had ordered Nathaniel Taggart to tear down his bridge and to carry his passengers across the river by means of barges. He had won that battle by a majority of one voice on the Supreme Court. His bridge was now the only major link left to hold the continent together. His last descendant had made it her strictest rule that whatever else was neglected, the Taggart Bridge would always be...
... single gesture; the brusque, brief movement of his hand made it look like the gesture of some solemn pledge. She thought suddenly that this was the first time in twelve years that he had come to her of his own choice. He had acted as if he were confidently in control, as if his confidence were a transfusion to let her recapture hers, he had given her no time to wonder that they should be here together...
... thing doesn't work, we'll try another. Trial-and-error is the only pragmatic rule of action. We'll just keep on trying. If any hardships come up, remember that it's only temporary. Only for the duration of the national emergency." "Say," asked Kinnan, "how is the emergency to end if everything is to stand still?" "Don't be theoretical," said Mouch impatiently. "We've got to deal with the situation of...
... saw with a small jolt of astonishment that the clock said 9:25. She had been dimly aware of the usual sound of movement and voices in the anteroom of her office, as her staff had arrived to begin their day; she wondered why nobody had entered her office and why her telephone had remained silent; as a daily rule, there should have been a rush of business by this hour. She glanced at her calendar...
... be first to tell you," he said very quietly and walked out. When she rose from her desk, a few moments later, she felt that she had full control of her body and that she was not aware of her body's existence. She felt lifted to her feet and it seemed to her that she stood straight, not touching the ground. There was an abnormal clarity about every object in the room, yet she was seeing nothing...
... understand why that extra Diesel had to be kept at the tunnel. I explained it to Mr. Locey, I threatened him, I pleaded, I told him that she had made it our strictest rule that Winston Station was never to be left without an extra Diesel. He told me to remember that he was not Miss Taggart-as if I could ever forget it!-and that the rule was nonsense, because nothing had happened all these years, so Winston...
... comfort and pleasure. Do not give it away and, above all, do not put it into your business." "Why?" "Because I don't want it to be of any benefit to anybody but you. Otherwise, I will have broken an oath taken long ago-as I am breaking every rule I had set for myself by speaking to you tonight." "What do you mean?" "I have been collecting this money for you for a long time. But I did not intend to see...
... jumped back involuntarily and had time to marvel at his companion: the swiftness of Danneskjold's self-control was that he did not move. It was a police car and it stopped beside them. The driver leaned out. "Oh, it's you, Mr. Rearden!" he said, touching his fingers to his cap. "Good evening, sir." "Hello," said Rearden, fighting to control the unnatural abruptness of his voice. There were two...
... by for emergency assistance." He put carbon copies of the orders into his own pocket, then opened the door, yelled for the night dispatcher to come up and handed him the two orders for the two men downstairs. The night dispatcher was a conscientious young boy who trusted his superiors and knew that discipline was the first rule of the railroad business. He was astonished that Mitchum should wish to...
...; he had no right to quit or to seek a job; if he defied an employer, he would be delivered into the unanswerable power of a single Board, and if the Board ruled against him, it would mean being sentenced to the slow death of starvation: it would mean being barred from any employment. He knew that the Board would rule against him; he knew that the key to the dark, capricious mystery of the Board's...
... housewife who believed that she had the right to elect politicians, of whom she knew nothing, to control giant industries, of which she had no knowledge. The man in Bedroom F, Car No. 13, was a lawyer who had said, "Me? I'll find a way to get along under any political system." The man in Bedroom A, Car No. 14, was a professor of philosophy who taught that there is no mind-how do you know that the tunnel...
... looking at her, disarmed and smiling. "Not yet. You have a great deal to forgive me, first. But I can tell you everything now." She had never heard that low, breathless quality of helplessness in his voice. He was fighting to regain control, there was almost a touch of apology in his smile, the apology of a child pleading for indulgence, but there was also an adult's amusement, the laughing declaration...