We the Living (1936) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters edit see section history

• Kira Argounova: Add a description of this character.
• Leo Kovalensky
• Andrei Taganov
• Galina Petrovna
• Vasili Ivanovitch
• Morozov
• Victor Dunaev
• Marisha
• Pavel Syerov
• Lydia
• Maria Petrovna
• Stepan Timoshenko
• Irina
• Alexander Dimitrievitch
• Sasha
• Antonina Pavlovna
• Sonia
• Kira Alexandrovna
• Tina
• Comrade Taganov
• John Gray
• Lenin
• Bitiuk
• Lev Sergeievitch
• Karl Marx
• Pavel Syemv
• Rita
• Pavlusha
• Voronov
• Ivan Ivanov
• Tonia
• Lev Kovalensky
• Kim
• Lavrov
• Acia

Quotes edit see section history

• “Most of the sciences are someone's guess, and someone's wish, and many people's lies.”

• “If one loses that appetite, why still sit at the table?”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• “Can you sacrifice the few? When those few are the best? Deny the best its right to the top—and you have no best left.

  Highlighted by 97 Kindle customers

• What are your masses but millions of dull, shrivelled, stagnant souls that have no thoughts of their own, no dreams of their own, no will of their own, who eat and sleep and chew helplessly the words others put into their brains? And for those you would sacrifice the few who know life, who are life? I loathe your ideals because I know no worse injustice than the giving of the undeserved. Because men are not equal in ability and one can’t treat them as if they were. And because I loathe most of them.”

  Highlighted by 94 Kindle customers

• “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.”

  Highlighted by 79 Kindle customers

• 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 millions?”

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• The basic cause of totalitarianism is two ideas: men’s rejection of reason in favor of faith, and of self-interest in favor of self-sacrifice.

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• “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 may 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.”

  Highlighted by 66 Kindle customers

• 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.”

  Highlighted by 64 Kindle customers

• “Society, Kira, is a stupendous whole.” “If you write a whole line of zeroes, it’s still—nothing.”

  Highlighted by 59 Kindle customers

• The first thing that Kira learned about life and the first thing that her elders learned, dismayed, about Kira, was the joy of being alone.

  Highlighted by 45 Kindle customers

• Such had been Kira’s entrance into life. Some enter it from under gray temple vaults, with head bowed in awe, with the light of sacrificial candles in their hearts and eyes. Some enter it with a heart like a pavement—tramped by many feet, and with a cold skin crying for the warmth of the herd. Kira Argounova entered it with the sword of a Viking pointing the way and an operetta tune for a battle march.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Petrograd
• Crimea
• Upravdom
• Marussia
• Siberia
• Moscow
• Europe
• Berlin
• Citizen Argounova
• Wall Newspaper
• Pravda
• Neva
• Citizen Kovalensky
• England
• Germany
• Heaven
• Soviet Russia
• Alexandrovsky
• Moika
• Putilovsky
• Vava

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by Anthem, and followed by Mission Earth 10 Volume Set.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Ayn Rand (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ3.R152 We PS3535.A547
• Dewey: 813.52

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Not suitable for children

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States › Classics › Rand, Ayn
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( R ) › Rand, Ayn
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history