Atlas Shrugged (1957)

Ayn Rand
“Who is John Galt?”
This is one of the most significant fiction books I read; it is the story of John Galt about a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world—and did... Through this book Ayn Rand puts forward her philosophy of Objectivism. It talks about protecting capitalism, and how to move above greed and evil effect. Book is full of quotations. When John Galt come back to society there is speech on radio (almost 100 pages)..Amazing!

“I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine”.

“Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man’s values, it has to be earned”.

“Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it”.

“That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you call 'free will' is your mind's freedom to think or not, the only will you have, your only freedom, the choice that controls all the choices you make and determines your life and your character”.

“The recognition of individual rights entails the banishment of physical force from human relationships: basically, rights can be violated only by means of force. In a capitalist society, no man or group may initiate the use of physical force against others. The only function of the government, in such a society, is the task of protecting man’s rights, i.e., the task of protecting him from physical force; the government acts as the agent of man’s right of self-defense, and may use force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use; thus the government is the means of placing the retaliatory use of force under objective control”.
—Ayn Rand,