In Lisp usually all non-nil values mean true. CL-USER 13 > (let ((a 1) (b 2)) (cond ((> a b) 'foo) (:hello :there)))

In Lisp usually all non-nil values mean true. CL-USER 13 > (let ((a 1) (b 2)) (cond ((> a b) 'foo) (:hello :there))) :THERE In some early Lisp dialects not all objects (other than lists and symbols) would be self-evaluating, so one would have to quote them.