Jeff Ragan’s Reviews > Atlas Shrugged > Status Update
Jeff Ragan
is on page 633 of 1080
"'I know that this stands for something.' 'The dollar sign? For a great deal. It stands on the vest of every fat, piglike figure in every cartoon, for the purpose of denoting a crook, a grafter, a scoundrel - as the one sure-fire brand of evil. It stands - as the money of a free country - for achievement, for success, for ability, for man's creative power...It stands for the initials of the United States'" (628).
— Feb 27, 2026 07:08AM
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Jeff’s Previous Updates
Jeff Ragan
is on page 689 of 1080
"'I quit,' said Quentin Daniels 'because, if there are degrees of damnation, the scientist who places his mind in the service of brute force is the longest-range murderer on earth'" (683).
— Apr 17, 2026 10:23AM
Jeff Ragan
is on page 682 of 1080
"All work is an act of philosophy. And when men will learn to consider productive work - and that which is its source - as the standard of their moral values,t hey will reach that state of perfection which is the birthright they lost...The source of work? Man's mind, Miss Taggart, man's reasoning mind" (677).
— Apr 10, 2026 07:43AM
Jeff Ragan
is on page 673 of 1080
"But she knew that there was no meaning in motors or factories or trains, that their only meaning was in man's enjoyment of his life, which they served...for the power and the radiant vision within him which had seen the earth as a place of enjoyment and had known that the work of achieving one's happiness was the purpose, the sanction and the meaning of life" (670).
— Apr 04, 2026 09:01AM
Jeff Ragan
is on page 663 of 1080
"Here, we trade achievements, not failures - values, not needs. We're free of one another, yet we all grow together. Wealth, Dagny? What greater wealth is there than to own your life and to spend it on growing? Every living thing must grow. It can't stand still. It must grow or perish" (663).
— Mar 30, 2026 08:46AM
Jeff Ragan
is on page 653 of 1080
"...it was new to feel protected, and to feel that it was right to accept the protection, to surrender - right, because this peculiar sense of safety was not protection against the future, but against the past, not the protection of being spared from battle, but of having won it, not a protection granted to her weakness, but to her strength..." (645).
— Mar 19, 2026 07:04AM
Jeff Ragan
is on page 643 of 1080
"Flung from side to side, like a battered pendulum, clinging to the wheel, half in her seat, half on her knees, she fought to pull the ship into a glide, for an attempt to make a belly-landing, while the green ground was whirling about her...And in answer to the earth that flew to meet her, she heard in her mind...the words of the sentence she hated...'Oh hell! Who is John Galt?'" (640).
— Mar 08, 2026 10:34AM
Jeff Ragan
is on page 622 of 1080
"If men fall for some vicious piece of insanity, when they have no way to make it work and no possible reason to explain their choice - it's because they have a reason that they do not wish to tell" (614).
— Feb 17, 2026 07:01AM
Jeff Ragan
is on page 611 of 1080
"...the harder you work the more is demanded of you, & you stand slinging buckets forty hours a week, then forty-eight, then fifty-six - for your neighbor's supper - for his wife's operation - for his child's measles...and yours to work, from sunup to sundown, month after month...with nothing in sight for you but their pleasure...From each according to his ability, to each according to his need..." (608).
— Feb 09, 2026 09:02AM
Jeff Ragan
is on page 601 of 1080
"I do not wish to work in a world that regards me as a slave. I do not wish to be of any value to people. If I succeeded in rebuilding the motor, I would not let you place it in their service. I would not take it upon my conscience that anything produced by my mind should be used to bring them comfort...I will see them all die of starvation, myself included, rather than forgive them for this..." (593).
— Jan 29, 2026 06:36AM
Jeff Ragan
is on page 591 of 1080
"'You wanted to know the name of that other man? The man I slept with? The man who had me first? It was Francisco d'Anconia!' She saw the force of the blow by seeing his face swept blank. She knew that if justice was her purpose, she had achieved it - because this slap was worse than the one he had dealt" (590).
— Jan 22, 2026 09:09AM
