“to say that man is a social animal is also to say that man never lives in a world completely of his own choosing.”
“Man, one may say, was never in such a completely animal condition; but he has, on the other hand, never escaped from it.”
“Hmm..." said the old man, looking at all sides of the book, as if it were some strange object. "This is an important book, but it's really irritating."The boy was shocked. The old man knew how to read, and had already read the book. And if the book was irritating, as the old man had said, the boy still had time to change it for another."It's a book that says the same thing almost all the other books in the world say," continued the old man. "It describes people's inability to choose their own Personal Legends. And it ends up saying that everyone believes the world's greatest lie.""What's the world's greatest lie?" the boy asked, completely surprised."It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie.”
“Some men […] choose to seek greatness, while others are forced to it. It is always better to choose than to be forced.A man who is forced is never completely his own master. He must dance on the strings of those who forced him.”
“The pleasure in complete domination over another person (or other animate creature) is the very essence of the sadistic drive. Another way of formulating the same thought is to say that the aim of sadism is to transform man into a thing, something animate into something inanimate, since by complete and absolute control the living loses one essential quality of life - freedom.”
“You control your own destiny. Never let anyone put you in a box and say 'This is your space'; You have the whole world to choose from. If you have something to say, say it. Live your life as you want to live it, not how others perceive your life to be lived. Take control. Today.”