From page 691 of the 35th Anniversary Edition of Atlas
Shrugged:
While this is an outstanding example for all honest judges to follow if
forced to choose between resigning or continuing to perpetrate fraud on
the American people, I would personally rather see an honest judge, who is
genuinely concerned about improving the experience of justice for the
people that appear before him, stay and continue his judging duties, but
stop being an accomplice to the perpetration of fraud on the American
people, only doing such duties in a bona fide way, and become part of the
growing tidal wave of effective action that is happening across America
that will result in restoring the proper relationship between all public
servants and the people they are supposed to be serving.
She looked at Judge Narragansett. "You quit over the same case,
didn't you?"
"Yes," said Judge Narragansett. "I quit when the court
of appeals reversed my ruling. The purpose for which I had chosen
my work was my resolve to be a guardian of justice. But the laws they
asked me to enforce made me the executor of the vilest injustice
conceivable. I was asked to use force to violate the rights of disarmed
men, who came before me to seek my protection for their rights.
Litigants obey the verdict of a tribunal solely on the premise that
there is an objective rule of conduct, which they both accept.
Now I saw that one man was to be bound by it, but the other was not, one
was to obey a rule, the other was to assert an arbitrary wish - his need
- and the law was to stand on the side of the wish. Justice was to
consist of upholding the unjustifiable. I quit - because I could not
have borne to hear the words 'Your Honor' addressed to me by an honest
man."
From page 513 of Atlas
Shrugged:
He knows the real issue, he knows the things which must not be said -
and he is not afraid to say them. He knows the one dangerous, fatally
dangerous weapon. He is our deadliest adversary.
"Who?" asked Lawson.
Dr. Ferris hesitated, shrugged and answered, "The guiltless
man."
Lawson stared blankly. "What do you mean and whom are you
talking about?"
James Taggart smiled.
"I mean that there is no way to disarm any man," said Dr.
Ferris, "except through guilt. Through that which he himself has
accepted as guilt. If a man has ever stolen a dime, you can impose
on him the punishment intended for a bank robber and he will take it.
He'll bear any form of misery, he'll feel that he deserves no better. If
there's not enough guilt in the world, we must create it. If we teach a
man that it's evil to look at the spring flowers and he believes us and
then does it - we'll be able to do whatever we please with him. He won't
defend himself. He won't feel he's worth it. He won't fight. But
save us from the man who lives up to his own standards. Save us from the
man of clear conscience. He's the man who'll beat us.
From page 973 of Atlas
Shrugged:
I saw that there comes a point, in the defeat of any man of virtue,
when his own consent is needed for evil to win - and that no
manner of injury done to him by others can succeed if he chooses to
withhold his consent. I saw that I could put an end to your outrages by
pronouncing a single word in my mind. I pronounced it. The word was
'No.'