Atlas Shrugged Quotes

Context

We'd love to see Ayn Rand's corpse resurrected and cast on Celebrity Apprentice. She'd have a lot to say as soon as the show's theme song started: "Money money money money…money!"

This line is from a speech by Francisco d'Anconia in Ayn Rand's final novel, Atlas Shrugged (1957).

Francisco is pondering the question: "Is money the root of all evil?" Instead of simply stating "no," he takes a few thousand words to reach the conclusion that "Money is the barometer of a society's virtue" and "Money is the root of all good."  

What else does it say in the theme for The Apprentice? Oh, that's right: "Money can drive some people out of their minds."

Where you've heard it

You hear this quote on all sides of the political spectrum, from people who think this quote is the perfect example of Rand's "greed is good" philosophy, to people defending her view on the importance of real money (the gold standard) instead of carelessly printed paper stuff.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

This quote, like most of Rand's work, is so contentious and debatable, we're staying out of whether or not it's pretentious until we can ask her exactly what she meant. 

Which we can't.