Just as you are not a thief when you take or exchange something belonging to yourself, you cannot steal from yourself and thus cannot sacrifice anything of your own. No one ever voluntarily suffers a loss by exchanging something that they value more for something they value less. There is therefore no such thing as self-sacrifice.

Every human being seeks profit. He or she seeks the satisfactions that can be obtained only by living his or her own life, making his or her own decisions, and obtaining as many good things for him or her self as possible.

Because no one has unlimited time, energy, or ability, men and women exist with a basic sense of uneasiness, and are therefore motivated to act in such a way as to maximize their gains and to minimize their losses.

Because humans are motivated to act by their desires, each always selects those actions which, according to his or her subjective judgment, seem most likely to enhance his or her well-being.

Humans are inner-directed, inner-motivated, and inner-controlled. Only the individual controls his or her own energy, and he or she will always seek to control it in such a way as to receive the greatest good as he or she perceives it at that time.

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