In Ayn Rand’s futuristic novel Anthem, Equality 7-2521 struggles against his society’s oppressive collectivism.
In this society, individualism is suppressed in favor of the group.
By discovering a secret, forbidden tunnel, he unlocks the power of personal freedom, creativity, and dormant human potential.
He challenges the status quo and ultimately embraces his unique identity as ‘Prometheus,’ a symbol of hope and enlightenment.
Anthem Quotes With Page Numbers
“It is a sin to write this.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521, Chapter 1, Page 7
“It is a sin to think words no others think”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 1, Page 7
“And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 1, Page 7
“It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil. It is as if we were speaking alone to no ears but our own. And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone. We have broken the laws. The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so. May we be forgiven!”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 1, Page 7
“but their eyes were as cold blue glass buttons.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 1, Page 18
“The sky is like a black sieve pierced by silver drops that tremble, ready to burst through.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 1, Page 20
“We alone, of the thousands who walk this earth, we alone in this hour are doing a work which has no purpose save that we wish to do it.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 1, Page 29
“Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no kindness and no guilt.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 2, Page 31
“We cannot say what they meant, for there are no words for their meaning, but we know it without words and we knew it then.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 2, Page 36
“If you see us among scores of women, will you look upon us?
We shall look upon you, Liberty 5-3000, if we see you among all the women of the earth.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 2, Page 36
“The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 3, Page 45
“And suddenly, for the first time this day, we remembered that we are the damned. We remembered it, and we laughed.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 8, Page 76
“You are damned, and we wish to share your damnation.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 9, Page 78
“We have followed you,” they said, “and we shall follow you wherever you go. If danger threatens you, we shall face it also. If it be death, we shall die with you. You are damned, and we wish to share your damnation.”
They looked upon us, and their voice was low, but there was bitterness and triumph in their voice:
“Your eyes are as a flame, but our brothers have neither hope nor fire. Your mouth is cut of granite, but our brothers are soft and humble. Your head is high, but our brothers cringe. You walk, but our brothers crawl. We wish to be damned with you, rather than blessed with all our brothers. Do as you please with us, but do not send us away from you.”
Then they knelt, and bowed their golden head before us.
We had never thought of that which we did. We bent to raise the Golden One to their feet, but when we touched them, it was as if madness had stricken us. We seized their body and we pressed our lips to theirs. The Golden One breathed once, and their breath was a moan, and then their arms closed around us.
We stood together for a long time. And we were frightened that we had lived for twenty-one years and had never known what joy is possible to men.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 9, Pages 78-79
“Our dearest one. Fear nothing of the forest. There is no danger in solitude. We have no need of our brothers. Let us forget their good and our evil, let us forget all things save that we are together and that there is joy as a bond between us. Give us your hand. Look ahead. It is our own world, Golden One, a strange, unknown world, but our own.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 9, Page 79-80
“And that night we knew that to hold the body of women in our arms in neither ugly nor shameful, but the one ecstasy granted to the race of men.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 9, Page 80
“The trees had protected it from time and weather, and from men who have less pity than time and weather.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 10, Pages 85, 86
“I am. I think. I will.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 91
“I stand here on the summit of the mountain. I lift my head and I spread my arms. This, my body and spirit, this is the end of the quest. I wished to know the meaning of all things. I am the meaning. I wished to find a warrant for being. I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction. Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a sacrifice on their alters.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 91
“Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a sacrifice on their altars.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 92
“It is my eyes which see, and the sight of my eyes grants beauty to the earth. It is my ears which hear, and the hearing of my ears gives its song to the world. It is my mind which thinks, and the judgement of my mind is the only searchlight that can find the truth. It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is the only edict I must respect.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 91, 92
“I know not if this earth on which I stand is the core of the universe or if it is but a speck of dust lost in eternity. I know not and I care not. For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 92
“Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy: “I will it!”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 92
“My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 92
“And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose…
I am a man. this miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before!
I do not surrender my treasures, nor do I share them. The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of the spirit. I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom.
I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I covet no man’s soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.
I am neither foe nor friend to my brothers, but such as each of them shall deserve of me. And to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grand my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be earned.
I shall choose my friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire. For in the temple of his spirit, each man is alone. Let each man keep his temple untouched and undefiled. Then let him join hands with others if he wishes, but only beyond his holy threshold.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Pages 92-94
“I am neither foe nor friend to my brothers, but such as each of them shall deserve of me. And to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be earned.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 93
“The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of the spirit. I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 93
“I covet no man’s soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 93
“I am neither foe nor friend to my brothers, but such as each of them shall deserve of me. And to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be earned.
I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command not obey.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 93
“The word “We” is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages.
What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it? What is my wisdom, if even the fools can dictate to me? What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and impotent, are my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and to obey?
But I am done with this creed of corruption.
I am done with the monster of “We,” the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame.
And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride.
This god, this one word:
“I.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 94
“What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it? What is my wisdom, if even the fools can dictate to me? What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and the impotent, are my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and to obey?”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 11, Page 94
“I understood that centuries of chains and lashes will not kill the spirit of man nor the sense of truth within him.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 96
“My dearest one, it is not proper for men to be without names. There was a time when each man had a name of his own to distinguish him from all other men. So let us choose our names. I have read of a man who lived many thousands of years ago, and of all the names in these books, his is the one I wish to bear. He took the light of the gods and brought it to men, and he taught men to be gods. And he suffered for his deed as all bearers of light must suffer. His name is Prometheus.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 97
“For they have nothing to fight me with, save the brute force of their numbers. I have my mind.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 98
“These are the last things before me. And as I stand here at the door of glory, I look behind me for the last time. I look upon the history of men, which I have learned from the books, and I wonder. It was a long story, and the spirit which moved it was the spirit of man’s freedom. But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. This and nothing else.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Pages 99, 100
“It was a long story and the spirt which moved it was the spirit of man’s freedom. But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. that is freedom. This and nothing else.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 100
“But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 100
“I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 100
“There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 100
“At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their chains. He was enslaved by his birth, by his kin, by his race. But he broke their chains. He declared to all his brothers that a man has rights which neither god nor king nor other men can take away from him, no matter what their number, for his is the right of man, and there is no right on earth above this right. And he stood on the threshold of freedom for which the blood of the centuries behind him had been spilled.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 100
“To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. This and nothing else.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 100
“I understand that centuries of chains and lashes will not kill the spirit of man nor the sense of truth within him.
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 100
“What whip lashed them to their knees in shame and submission? The worship of the word “We.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Pages 100-01
“But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years of transition, long ago, that men did not see whither they were going, and went on, in blindness and cowardice”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Pages 101-02
“But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years of transition, long ago, that men did not see whither they were going, and went on, in blindness and cowardice, to their fate. I wonder, for it is hard for me to conceive how men who knew the word “I,” could give it up and not know what they lost. But such has been the story, for I have lived in the City of the damned, and I know what horror men permitted to be brought upon them.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 101-02
“And I wish I had the power to tell tem that the despair of their hearts was not to be final, and their night was not without hope. For the battle they lost can never be lost.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 102
“Theirs is the banner in my hand. And I wish I had the power to tell them that the despair of their hearts was not to be final, and their night was not without hope. For the battle they lost can never be lost. For that which they died to save can never perish. Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which men are capable, the spirit of man will remain alive on this earth. It may sleep, but it will awaken. It may wear chains, but it will break through. And man will go on. Man, not men.
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Pages 102-03
“For the coming of that day shall I fight, I and my sons and my chosen friends. For the freedom of Man. For his rights. For his life. For his honor.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 103
“And man will go on. Man, not men.”
~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Page 103
“And here, over the portals of my fort, I shall cut in the stone the word which is to be my beacon and my banner. The word which will not die should we all perish in battle. The word which can never die on this earth, for it is the heart of it and the meaning and the glory.
The sacred word:
EGO”~Ayn Rand, Anthem, Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), Chapter 12, Pages 103-04