Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it-that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life-that the vilest form of self-abasement and self-destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of an authority over your brain, the acceptance of his assertions as facts, his say-so as truth, his edicts as middle-man between your consciousness and your existence.

They talked about nothing in particular, sentences that had meaning only in the sound of the voices, in warm gaiety, in the ease of complete relaxation.

A quest for self-respect is proof of its lack

Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.

I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.

For the first time since her return, she felt pain, a violent pain, but it made her feel alive, because it was worth feeling.

I will not die, it's the world that will end." paraphrase of unknown philosopher