Both Uses of
penance
in
Atlas Shrugged
- It does not matter who then becomes the profiteer on his renounced glory and tormented soul, a mystic God with some incomprehensible design or any passer-by whose rotting sores are held as some inexplicable claim upon him-it does not matter, the good is not for him to understand, his duty is to crawl through years of penance, atoning for the guilt of his existence to any stray collector of unintelligible debts, his only concept of a value is a zero: the good is that which is non-man.†
Chpt 3.7
- I am the first man who would not do penance for my virtues or let them be used as the tools of my destruction.†
Chpt 3.7 *
Definition:
-
(penance) self-punishment, prayer, or other action to make up for wrong-doing
or:
a religious practice (often called confession) involving confession, forgiveness, and atonement