Morality pertains only to the sphere of man's free will - only to those actions which are open to his choice.

We are all brothers under the skin - and I, for one, would be willing to skin humanity to prove it.

Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live-that productive work is the process by which man's consciousness controls his existence, a constant process of acquiring knowledge and shaping matter to fit one's purpose, of translating an idea into physical form, of remaking the earth in the image of one's values-that all work is creative work if done by a thinking mind.

I understood that centuries of chains and lashes will not kill the spirit of man nor the sense of truth within him.

Self-esteem is reliance on one's power to think. It cannot be replaced by one's power to deceive. The self-confidence of a scientist and the self-confidence of a con man are not interchangeable states, and do not come from the same psychological universe. The success of a man who deals with reality augments his self-confidence. The success of a con man augments his panic.

Don't bother to examine a folly-ask yourself only what it accomplishes.

There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.