The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.

When one acts on pity against justice, it is the good whom one punishes for the sake of the evil; when one saves the guilty from suffering, it is the innocent whom one forces to suffer. There is no escape from justice, nothing can be unearned and unpaid for in the universe, neither in matter nor in spirit—and if the guilty do not pay, then the innocent have to pay it.

The code of competence is the only system of morality that's on a gold standard.

Through all the years that I spent formulating my philosophical system, I was looking desperately for “intelligent agreement” or at least for “intelligent disagreement.” I found neither. Today, I am not looking for “intelligent disagreement” any longer ... What I am looking for is intelligent agreement.

Face a challenge and find joy in the capacity to meet it.

There were things in my past which I have not liked. But all the things of which I was proud will remain.

When personal judgment is inoperative (or forbidden), men's first concern is not how to choose, but how to justify their choice