Through all the ages the mind has been regarded as evil, and every form of insult: from heretic to materialist to exploiter–every form of iniquity: from exile to disfranchisement to expropriation–every form of torture: from sneers to rack to firing squad–have been brought down upon those who assumed the responsibility of looking at the world through the eyes of a living consciousness and performing the crucial act of a rational connection. Yet only to the extent to which–in chains, in dungeons, in hidden corners, in the cells of philosophers, in the shops of traders–some men continued to think, only to that extent was humanity able to survive. Ayn Rand
About This Quote

Martin Niemoller, the German pastor who was arrested by the Nazis in the 1930s, spent the next two decades in concentration camps. He described in his poem "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist" how he and other Germans were imprisoned and tortured for their beliefs.

Source: Atlas Shrugged

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