You, Who Claim That You Long To Rise Above The Crude Concerns Of The
Body, Above The Drudgery Of Serving Mere Physical Needs -- Who Is
Enslaved By Physical Need
You, who claim that you long to rise above the crude concerns of the
body, above the drudgery of serving mere physical needs -- who is
enslaved by physical needs: the Hindu who labors from sunrise to
sunset at the shafts of a handplow for a bowl of rice, or the American
who is driving a tractor? Who is the conqueror of physical reality:
the man who sleeps on a bed of nails or the man who sleeps on an
inner-spring mattress?Which is the monument to the triumph of the
human spirit over matter: the germ-eaten hovels on the shorelines of
the Ganges or the Atlantic skyline of New York?
-- John Galt
