To live consciously means to seek to be aware of everything that bears on our actions, purposes, values, and goals—to the best of our ability, whatever that ability may be—and to behave in accordance with that which we see and know.

The highest compliment one can be paid by another human being is to be told: 'Because of what you are, you are essential to my happiness.'

The real basic power of an individual isn't what he or she knows; it's the ability to think and learn and face new challenges.

An emotion is both a mental and a physical event.

Every day, it's important to ask and answer these questions: "What's good in my life?" and "What needs to be done?"

... there is an irrational, cultish tendency in many intellectual movements, and Objectivism, alas, is no exception. Ayn Rand's personal obsession with loyalty did little to discourage this trend.... Rand had often protested, 'Protect me from my followers!'

A depression is a large-scale decline in production and trade...there is nothing in the nature of a free-market economy to cause such an event.