“Whatever may be their use in civilized societies, mirrors are essential to all violent and heroic action.”

“The point of civilization is to be civilized; the purpose of action is to perpetuate society, for only in society can philosophy truly take place.”

“The social order, though necessary, is essentially evil, whatever it may be.”

“Civilization has absolutely no need of nobility or heroism. These things are symptoms of political ineffiency. In a properly organized society like ours, nobody has any opportunities for being noble or heroic.”

“Power is the ability to take one's place in whatever discourse is essential to action and the right to have one's part matter.”

“The necessary consequence of man's right to life is his right to self-defense. In a civilized society, force may be used only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. All the reasons which make the initiation of physical force an evil, make the retaliatory use of physical force a moral imperative.If some "pacifist" society renounced the retaliatory use of force, it would be left helplessly at the mercy of the first thug who decided to be immoral. Such a society would achieve the opposite of its intention: instead of abolishing evil, it would encourage and reward it.”