Atlas Shrugged—Chapter 5

I enjoyed d'Anconia's introduction.
Here is one of my favorite passages so far:

"Don’t you ever think of anything but d’Anconia Copper?" Jim asked him once.
"No."
"It seems to me that there are other things in the world."
"Let others think about them."
"Isn’t that a very selfish attitude?"
"It is."
"What are you after?"
"Money."
"Don’t you have enough?"
"In his lifetime, every one of my ancestors raised the production of d’Anconia Copper by about ten per cent. I intend to raise it by one hundred."
"What for?" Jim asked, in sarcastic imitation of Francisco’s voice.
"When I die, I hope to go to heaven, whatever the hell that is, and I want to be able to afford the price of admission.
"Virtue is the price of admission," Jim said haughtily.
"That’s what I mean, James. So I want to be prepared to claim the greatest virtue of all that I was a man who made money."
"Any grafter can make money."
"James, you ought to discover some day that words have an exact meaning."

I must admit that I feel very attracted to the notion that money is a barometer of a man's virtue. But...

I really like the admonition about words—sloppy words reveal sloppy thinking.