How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Volume.Chapter.Section.Page). We used the 50th Anniversary Edition published by Signet Books in 2007.
Quote #10
She had never believed that there were men with whom a certain method, which she had never used, would work; such men were not hired by Taggart Transcontinental and she had never been forced to deal with them before.
"Do you know who I am?" she asked, in the cold, overbearing tone of a personal threat. (2.10.2.150)
Dagny is discovering here that she has to deal with people in crummy ways. And the "overbearing" tone she adopts is effective, almost as if the person on the phone were expecting someone in such a powerful position as hers to be rude and condescending, and would only respond to this kind of treatment.
Quote #11
"Their goal is not the era of pre-science, but the era of pre-language. Their purpose is to deprive you of the concept on which man's mind, his life, and his culture depend: the concept of an objective reality." (3.7.1.283)
Galt's comments on "pre-language" tie in with a major theme in the book: that of historical backslide. Multiple characters note how the looters seem to be sending everyone back in time to the Dark Ages.