...his voice solemnly calm, "if you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of this strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down on his shoulders--what would you tell him to do?"

"I... don't know. What... could he do? What would you tell him?"

"To shrug."

Return to Ayn Rand.