Anthem: Top Ten Quotes

In humanistic, enlightenment terms, Equality 7-2521 describes the power of electricity (and the power of individual ability): "There are no limits to its secrets and its might, and it can be made to grant us anything if we but chose to ask." If anywhere in the book, this statement sums up Rand's view of man and human potential.

Equality 7-2521 tries to persuade them to listen to him, telling them that he gives them "the power of the sky" and the "key to the earth." The scholars respond, saying, "What is not done collectively cannot be good."

Next, the two individuals make love in a powerful, beautifully imaged author narrative, as Rand demonstrates that sex is not ugly, as the Palace of Mating makes it out to be, but indeed the pinnacle of the human experience, "the one ecstasy granted to the race of men," Equality 7-2521 boldly asserts. 

Equality 7-2521, now finding the Unspeakable Word, asserts, "I am the warrant and the sanction."

Equality 7-2521, now finding the Unspeakable Word, asserts, "It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is the only edict I must respect."

Equality 7-2521, now finding the Unspeakable Word, asserts, "My happiness is not the means to any end.  It is the end."

Equality 7-2521, now finding the Unspeakable Word, asserts, "I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others.  I cover no man's soul, nor is my soul theirs to cover."

Equality 7-2521, who now calls himself Prometheus, after the man who "taught men to be gods," now realizes that what he always considered his curse, his individuality, was and is a glorious blessing. 

Equality 7-2521 concludes his anthem, saying, "the day will come when I shall break all the chains of the earth, and raze the cities of the enslaved, and my home will become the capital of a world where each man will be free to exist for his own sake."

"The sacred word: EGO"