Forget Labor Day. Today, September 2, is Atlas Shrugged Day. I celebrate this day each year by opening to a random page of this great novel, by Ayn Rand, and reading a passage. Here is what I found today, on page 512 of the hardcover book (New York: Random House, 1957), Part II, Chapter V (“Account Overdrawn”):

“Look around you,” he said. “A city in the frozen shape of human courage–the courage of those men who thought for the first time of every bolt, rivet, and power generator that went to make it. The courage to say, not ‘It seems to me,’ but ‘It is‘–and to stake one’s life on one’s judgment. You’re not alone. Those men exist. They have always existed. There was a time when human beings crouched in caves, at the mercy of any pestilence and any storm. Could men such as those on your Board of Directors have brought them out of the cave and up to this?” He pointed at the city.

“God, no!”

“Then there’s your proof that another kind of men do exist.”

“Yes,” she said avidly. “Yes.”

“Think of them and forget your Board if Directors.”

“Francisco, where are they now–the other kind of men?”

“Now they’re not wanted.”

“I want them. Oh, God, how I want them!”

“When you do, you’ll find them.”