Man has been called a rational being, but rationality is a matter of choice-and the alternative his nature offers him is: rational being or suicidal animal. Man has to be man-by choice; he has to hold his life as a value-by choice; he has to learn to sustain it-by choice; he has to discover the values it requires and practice his virtues-by choice. A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.

As there can be no causeless wealth, so there can be no causeless love or any sort of causeless emotion.

I seek no values by means of evil, nor do I surrender my values to evil.

Man's mind is his basic tool of survival. Life is given to him, survival is not.

Every form of causeless self-doubt, every feeling of inferiority and secret unworthiness is, in fact, man's hidden dread of his inability to deal with existence.

I do not enter discussions with neighbors who think they can forbid me to think. I do not place my moral sanction upon a murderer's wish to kill me. When a man attempts to deal with me by force, I answer him-by force.

Whatever he was-that robot in the Garden of Eden, who existed without mind, without values, without labor, without love-he was not man.