“Man has free choice, or otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards and punishments would be in vain. ”

“No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself. No man is free who cannot command himself.”

“Because in fantasy perhaps more than in any other genre, the character is rewarded for making the right choices and punished for making the bad.Ask Boromir.”

“For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward. Free your mind of the idea of deserving, the idea of earning, and you will begin to be able to think.”

“Insofar as thought could be governed at all, it could only be commanded to follow what reason affirmed anyhow; command it otherwise and it would not obey.”

“A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.”