Taken from We The Living, Chapter 9:
“Do you believe in God, Andrei?”
“No.”
“Neither do I. But that’s a favorite question of mine. An upside-down question, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if I asked people whether they believed in life, they’d never understand what I meant. It’s a bad question. It can mean so much that it really means nothing. So I ask them if they believe in God. And if they say they do — then, I know they don’t believe in life.”
“Why?”
“Because you see, God — whatever anyone chooses to call God — is one’s highest conception of the highest possible. And whoever places his highest conception above his own possibility thinks very little of himself and his life. It’s a rare gift, you know, to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your very own. To imagine a heaven and then not to dream of it, but to demand it.”
“You’re a strange girl.”
“You see, you and I, we believe in life. But you want to fight for it, to kill for it, even to die — for life. I only want to live it.”
I always believe that satisfying oneself now should be the only task a man should have. Also, the task may be acted upon in any way he sees fit. That is living the life for me.
May 13th, 2008
Taken from We The Living, Chapter 6:
“For one reason, mainly, chiefly and eternally, no matter how much your Party promises to accomplish, no matter what paradise it plans to bring mankind. Whatever your other claims ma be, there’s one you can’t avoid, one that will turn your paradise into the most unspeakable hell: your claim that man must live for the state.”
“What better purpose can he live for?”
“Don’t you know that there are things, in the best of us, which no outside hand should dare to touch? Things sacred because, and only because, one can say: ‘This is mine’? Don’t you know that we live only for ourselves, the best of us do, those who are worthy of it? Don’t you know that there is something in us which must not be touched by any state, by any collective, by any number of million?”
Took the words out of my mouth. I did not base my philosophy of selfishness from Rand. I’ve already formulated my thoughts before reading any of her books - this being the first. Here she uses the word “state” which in fact is society. That’s because the setting was the Red Soviet and the Marxists emphasizes on the state rather than the people.
“… I don’t want to fight for the people, I don’t want to fight against the people, I don’t want to hear of the people. I want to be left alone - to live.”
May 12th, 2008
I’m currently reading Ayn Rand’s We The Living and I would like to post the notables (according to me). That way I won’t forget the things I pick-up from her.
Taken from the second chapter:
“Frankly,” said Victor, “your attitude is slightly antisocial, Kira… we all have our duty to society to consider.”
“Exactly to whom is it that you owe a duty, Victor?”
“To society.”
“What is society?”
“Society, Kira, is a stupendous whole.”
“If you write a whole line of zeroes, it’s still - nothing.”
“I fear for your future, Kira,” said Victor. “It’s time to get reconciled to life. You won’t get far with those ideas of yours.”
“That,” said Kira, “depends on what direction I want to go.”
Need I say more?
May 11th, 2008
Last night I watched on DVD a Swiss film Vitus. It’s about a boy named Vitus who is a genius and striving to becoming a normal boy. He eventually fooled everyone that he is normal. What caught my attention is a dialogue between Vitus and a school teacher who believed he is not a genius. The teacher asked him if he knows which river flows through Cairo. He lied and said no and offered to look it up on the Atlas for the teacher. The teacher then responded that there is no need because she already knows the name of the river. Vitus, without hesitation, asked his teacher if teachers always know more than their pupils. The teacher of course responded that it is true. So then Vitus asked the teacher again who invented the Steam Engine. The teacher answered proudly that it was James Watt. So Vitus asked her why it wasn’t Watt’s teacher who invented the Steam Engine.
February 7th, 2008
