Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at liberty, if he wished, to drop the Earth and creep away; but this opinion was all that he was permitted.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I would read the atlas for pleasure. I knew it was weird. It was weird.
It is easily and often overlooked that when Thomas Jefferson asserted that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were inalienable human rights, he did so on the ground that they had been endowed by God, our Creator.
Man loves liberty, even if he does not know that he loves it. He is driven by it and flees from where it does not exist.
Few things are more enjoyable than lingering over the atlas and plotting a trip.
It's one thing to buy a copy of 'Atlas Shrugged.' You actually have to read it to get anything out of it.
It is his restraint that is honorable to a person, not their liberty.
Drop the idea that you are Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders. The world would go on even without you. Don't take yourself so seriously.
By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes is his duty against the influence of authority and majorities, custom and opinion.
My grandfather was a man, when he talked about freedom, his attitude was really interesting. His view was that you had obligations or you had responsibilities, and when you fulfilled those obligations or responsibilities, that then gave you the liberty to do other things.
Literature led me to freedom, not the other way round.