# Quote — Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly

> The living, he thought, should never be used to serve the purposes of the dead. But the dead—he glanced at Bruce, the empty shape beside him — should, if possible, serve the purposes of the living.
>
> That, he reasoned, is the law of life.
>
> And the dead, if they could feel, might feel better doing so.
>
> The dead, Mike thought, who can still see, even if they can't understand: they are our camera.

- Author: [Philip K. Dick](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick.md)
- Book: [A Scanner Darkly](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/a-scanner-darkly.md)
- Page: 266
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#A_Scanner_Darkly_(1977)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/a-scanner-darkly/the-living-he-thought

## More from this book

> The unconscious is selective, when it learns what to listen for.

p. 200 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/a-scanner-darkly/the-unconscious-is-selective.md)

> Where there's dope, there's hope!

p. 118 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/a-scanner-darkly/where-theres-dope.md)

> They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed—run over, maimed, destroyed—but they continued to play anyhow.

p. 276 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/a-scanner-darkly/they-wanted-to-have.md)