Errors of knowledge are not breaches of morality; no proper moral code can demand infallibility or omniscience.

One can study what exists and how consciousness functions; but one cannot analyze (or “prove”) existence as such, or consciousness as such. These are irreducible primaries. (An attempt to “prove” them is self-contradict ory: it is an attempt to “prove” existence by means of nonexistence, and consciousness by means of unconsciousness .)

[Altruism] is a moral system which holds that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the sole justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, value and virtue. This is the moral base of collectivism, of all dictatorships.

The difference between animals and humans is that animals change themselves for the environment, but humans change the environment for themselves.

A spirit, too, needs fuel. It can run dry.

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority.

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