We the Living is not a novel 'about Soviet Russia.' It is a novel about Man against the State. Its basic theme is the sanctity of human life - using the word 'sanctity' not in a mystical sense, but in the sense of 'supreme value.'

There are no evil thoughts except one; the refusal to think.

An attempt to achieve the good by force is like an attempt to provide a man with a picture gallery at the price of cutting out his eyes.

I loathe your ideals because I know no worse injustice than the giving of the undeserved.

Observe how many people evade, rationalize and drive their minds into a state of blind stupor, in dread of discovering that those they deal with- their "loved ones" or friends or business associates or political rulers- are not merely mistaken, but evil. Observe that this dread leads them to sanction, to help and to spread the very evil whose existence they fear to acknowledge.

The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.

Truth is the recognition of reality; reason, man's only means of knowledge, is his only standard of truth.