Galt's Speech — The Morality of Life — The Nature of Reason

Question 1

We, the men of the mind, are now on strike against you in the name of a single axiom, which is the root of our moral code, just as the root of yours is the wish to escape it:

Answer 1

The axiom that EXISTENCE EXISTS.

Question 2

Existence exists—and the act of grasping that statement implies two corollary axioms:

Answer 2

1. That something exists which one perceives.

2. That one exists possessing consciousness—consciousness being the faculty of perceiving that which exists.

Question 3

If nothing exists, there can be no consciousness:

Answer 3

A consciousness with nothing to be conscious of is a contradiction in terms.

Question 4

A consciousness conscious of nothing but itself is a contradiction in terms:

Answer 4

Before it could identify itself as consciousness, it had to be conscious of something.

Question 5

If that which you claim to perceive does NOT exist, …

Answer 5

What you possess is NOT consciousness.

Question 6

Whatever the degree of your knowledge, these 2–existence and consciousness—are axioms you cannot escape.

Answer 6

They are the irreducible primaries implied in any action you undertake, in any part of your knowledge and in its sum—from the first ray of light you perceive at the start of your life to the widest erudition you might acquire at its end.

Question 7

Whether you know the shape of a pebble or the structure of a solar system, the axioms remain the same:

Answer 7

That it exists and that you know it.

Question 8

To exist is to …

Answer 8

BE SOMETHING—as distinguished from the nothing of non-existence.

Question 9

It is to be an entity of a specific nature made of specific attributes.

Answer 9

Centuries ago, the man who was—no matter what his errors—the greatest of your philosophers, has stated the formula defining the concept of existence and the rule of all knowledge:
A is A.
A THING IS ITSELF.

Question 10

You have never grasped the meaning of his statement. I am here to complete it.

Answer 10

EXISTENCE IS IDENTITY.

CONSCIOUSNESS IS IDENTIFICATION.

Question 11

Whatever you choose to consider, be it an object, an attribute or an action, the law of identity remains the same.

Answer 11

A leaf cannot be a stone at the same time, it cannot be all red and all green at the same time, it cannot freeze and burn at the same time.

A is A.
You cannot have your cake and eat it, too.

Question 12

Are you seeking to know what is wrong with the world?

Answer 12

All the disasters that have wrecked your world, came from your leaders attempt to evade the fact that A is A.

Question 13

All the secret evil you dread to face within you and all the pain you have endured, came from your OWN attempt to evade the fact that A is A.

Answer 13

The purpose of those who taught you to evade it, was to make you forget that MAN IS MAN.

Question 14

Man cannot survive except by gaining knowledge, and reason is his only means to gain it.

Answer 14

Reason is the faculty that perceives, identifies and integrates the material provided by his senses.

Question 15

The task of his senses is to give him the evidence of existence, but the task of IDENTIFYING it belongs to his reason.

Answer 15

The task of his senses is to give him the evidence of existence, but the task of identifying it belongs to his reason, his senses tell him only that something is, but WHAT IT IS must be learned by his mind.

Question 16

All thinking is a process of …

Answer 16

IDENTIFICATION + INTEGRATION.

Question 17

Man perceives a blob of color;

Answer 17

By integrating the evidence of his sight and his touch, he learns to identify is as a solid object.

Question 18

He learns to identify the object as a table:

Answer 18

He learns that the table is made of wood.

Question 19

He learns that the wood consists of cells, that the cells consists of molecules, …

Answer 19

That the molecules consist of atoms.

Question 20

All through this process, the work of his mind consists of answers to a single question:

Answer 20

WHAT IS IT?

Question 21

His means to establish the truth of his answers is logic, and logic rests on the axiom that existence exists.

Answer 21

Logic is the art of non-contradictory identification.

Question 22

A contradiction CANNOT exist.

An atom is itself, and so is the universe.

Answer 22

Neither can contradict its own identity.

Nor can a part contradict the whole.

Question 23

NO CONCEPT MAN FORMS IS VALID UNLESS …

Answer 23

HE INTEGRATES IT WITHOUT CONTRADICTION INTO THE TOTAL SUM OF HIS KNOWLEDGE.

Question 24

To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one’s thinking.

Answer 24

To maintain a contradiction is to abdicate one’s mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality.

Question 25

Reality is that which exists. The unreal does not exist.

Answer 25

The unreal is merely the negation of existence which IS THE CONTENT of a human consciousness when it attempts to abandon reason.

Question 26

Truth is the RECOGNITION OF REALITY.

Answer 26

Reason, man’s ONLY means of knowledge, is his ONLY standard of truth.

Question 27

The most depraved sentence you can now utter is to ask: Whose reason?

Answer 27

The answer is: Yours.

Question 28

No matter how vast your knowledge or how modest, ...

Answer 28

It is your OWN mind that has to acquire it. It is only with your OWN knowledge that you can deal.

Question 29

It is only your OWN knowledge that you can claim to possess or ask others to consider.

Answer 29

Your mind is your only judge of truth—and if others dissent from your verdict, REALITY IS THE COURT OF FINAL APPEAL.

Question 30

Nothing but a man’s mind can perform that complex, delicate, crucial process of identification which is ...

Answer 30

Thinking.

Question 31

Nothing can direct the process but HIS OWN JUDGEMENT.

Answer 31

Nothing can direct his judgement but his MORAL INTEGRITY.

Question 32

You who speak of a “moral instinct” as if it were some separate endowment opposed to reason—...

Answer 32

MAN’S REASON IS HIS MORAL FACULTY.

Question 33

A process of reason is a process of constant choice in answer to the question:

Answer 33

True or False?—Right or Wrong?

Question 34

Is a seed to be planted in soil in order to grow?

Answer 34

Right or wrong?

Question 35

Is a man’s wound to be disinfected in order to save his life?

Answer 35

Right or wrong?

Question 36

Does the nature of atmospheric electricity permit it to be converted into kinetic power?

Answer 36

Right or wrong?

Question 37

It is answers to such questions that gave you everything you have—and the answers came from a ...

Answer 37

Man’s mind—A mind of INTRANSIGENT DEVOTION TO THAT WHICH IS RIGHT.

Question 38

A rational process is a ...

Answer 38

MORAL PROCESS.

Question 39

You may make an error at any step of it, with nothing to protect you but your own severity, or ...

Answer 39

You may try to cheat, to fake the evidence and evade the effort of the quest.

Question 40

But if devotion to truth is the hallmark of morality, then ...

Answer 40

There is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion that the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.

Question 41

That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you call “free will” is ...

Answer 41

Your mind’s freedom TO THINK OR NOT, the ONLY WILL YOU HAVE, your ONLY freedom. The choice that controls all the choices you make and determines your life and your character.

Question 42

Thinking is man’s ONLY basic virtue, from which all others proceed.

Answer 42

And his basic vice, the source of all his evils, is that nameless act which all of you practice, but struggle never to admit.

Question 43

The act of BLANKING OUT—the WILLFUL SUSPENSION of one’s consciousness—the REFUSAL TO THINK:

Answer 43

Not blindness, but the refusal to see. | Not ignorance, but the refusal to know.

Question 44

It is the act of unfocusing your mind and inducing an INNER FOG to ESCAPE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF JUDGEMENT—...

Answer 44

On the unstated premise that a thing will not exist if only you refuse to identify it. That A will not be A so long as you do not pronounce the verdict “It is”.

Question 45

NON-THINKING is an act of annihilation, a wish to negate existence, ...

Answer 45

An attempt to WIPE OUT REALITY.

Question 46

But existence exists.

Answer 46

Reality is not to be wiped out. It will merely WIPE OUT THE WIPER.

Question 47

By refusing to say “It is”, you are refusing to say ...

Answer 47

“I am”.

Question 48

By suspending your judgement, ...

Answer 48

You are NEGATING your person.

Question 49

When a man declares: “Who am I to know?”—he is declaring:

Answer 49

WHO AM I TO LIVE?

Question 50

This, in every hour and every issue, is your basic MORAL choice:

Answer 50

Thinking or NON-thinking. Existence or NON-existence. A or NON-A. Entity or zero.

Question 51

To the extent to which a man is rational, LIFE is premise directing his actions.

Answer 51

To the extent which he is irrational, the premise directing his actions is DEATH.

Question 52

You, who prattle that morality is social and that man would need no morality on a desert island—...

Answer 52

It is on a desert island that he would need it most.

Question 53

Let him try to claim, when there are NO VICTIMS TO PAY FOR IT, ...

Answer 53

That a rock is a house. That sand is clothing. That food will drop into his mouth without cause or effort. That he will collect a harvest tomorrow by devouring his stock seed today. And reality will wipe him out, as he deserves.

Question 54

Reality will show him that LIFE IS A VALUE TO BE BOUGHT and that ...

Answer 54

THINKING is the only coin noble enough to buy it.

Question 55

If I were to speak your kind of language, I would say that man’s ONLY moral commandment is:

Answer 55

Thou shalt think.

Question 56

But a moral commandment is a contradiction in terms.

Answer 56

The moral is the CHOSEN, not the forced. The UNDERSTOOD, not the obeyed. The moral IS THE RATIONAL, and reason accepts no commandments.