Atlas Shrugged part II

Some more of Atlas Shrugged. The first quote delves into the requirement of meaning, and adherence to one's values. The second is a mild attack from John Galt on the irrational behaviour of men. The third quote is Ayn Rand's basic conception of love in her form of romanticism; that values and self-esteem are virtuous and draw two people together (love not being something we leech from the other partner, or that is given out of pity).

I said that the second quote is a mild attack on irrational behaviour, but it is foolish of me to ignore the fact that her entire book, her philosophy of objectivism, and without a doubt her whole life, is a constant and unrelenting attack on all things irrational; reason, and acceptance of it, is the first stage to understanding life and knowledge.

P.780 Dagny Taggard talking to Francisco d'Anconia

"You want to hold me here, don't you?"
"More than anything else in the world."
"You could hold me."
"I know it."
His voice had said it with the same sound as hers. We waited, to regain his breath. When he spoke, his voice was low and clear, with some stressed quality of awareness, which was almost the quality of a smile of understanding:
"It's your acceptance of this place that I want. What good would it do me, to have your physical presence without any meaning? That's the kind of faked reality by which most people cheat themselves of their lives. I'm not capable of it." He turned to go. "And neither are you. Good night, Miss Taggart."

P.798 John Galt talking to Dagny Taggart

"Did it ever occur to you, Miss Taggart," said Galt, in the casual tone of an abstract discussion, but as if he had known her thoughts, "that there is no conflict of interests among men, neither in business nor in trade nor in their most personal desires--if they omit the irrational from their view of the possible and destruction from their view of the practical? There is no conflict, and no call for sacrifice, and no man is a threat to the aims of another--if men understand that reality is an absolute not to be faked, that lies do not work, that the unearned cannot be had, that the undeserved cannot be given, that the destruction of a value which is, will not bring value to that which isn't. The businessman who wishes to gain a market by throttling a superior competitor, the worker who wants a share of his employer's wealth, the artist who envies a rival's higher talent--they're all wishing facts out of existence, and destruction is the only means of their wish. If they pursue it, they will not achieve a market, a fortune or an immortal fame--they will merely destroy production, employment and art. A wish for the irrational is not to be achieved, whether the sacrificial victims are willing or not. But men will not cease to desire the impossible and will not lose their longing to destroy--so long as self-destruction and self-sacrifice are preached to them as the practical means of achieving the happiness of the recipients."

P.852 Dagny Taggart in a radio broadcast revealing her relationship with the already married Hank Rearden

"For two years, I had been Hank Rearden's mistress. Let there be no misunderstanding about it: I am saying this, not as a shameful confession, but with the highest sense of pride. I had been his mistress. I had slept with him, in his bed, in his arms. There is nothing anyone might now say to you about me, which I will not tell you first. It will be useless to defame me--I know the nature of the accusations and I will state them to you myself. Did I feel a physical desire for him? I did. Was I moved by a passion of my body? I was. Have I experienced the most violent form of sensual pleasure? I have. If this now makes me a disgraced woman in your eyes--let your estimate be your own concern. I will stand on mine."
[...]
"I am proud that he had chosen me to give him pleasure and that it was he who had been my choice. It was not--as it is for most of you-- an act of casual indulgence and mutual contempt. It was the ultimate form of our admiration for each other, with full knowledge of the values by which we made our choice. We are those who do not disconnect the values of their minds from the actions of their bodies, those who do not leave their values to empty dreams, but bring them into existence, those who give material form to thoughts, and reality to values--those who make steel, railroads and happiness. And to such among you who hate the thought of human joy, who wish to see men's life as chronic suffering and failure, who wish men to apologize for happiness--or for success, or ability, or achievement, or wealth--to such among you, I am now saying: I wanted him, I had him, I was happy, I had known joy, a pure, full, guiltless joy, the joy you dread to hear confessed by any human being, the joy of which your only knowledge is in your hatred for those who are worthy of reaching it. Well, hate me, then--because I reached it!"