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615de72
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If I choose to dine with publicans and sinners, that is my business. But I do not choose to break bread with Pharisees.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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4348c1a
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It is not nonsense and nobody asked you; you aren't competent to have an opinion about it.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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3191525
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J]uvenile delinquent' is a contradiction in terms. 'Delinquent' means 'failing in duty.' But duty is an adult virtue--indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge and duty and embraces it more than the self-love he was born with.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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e7bb418
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He should have known better because, early in his learnings under his brother Mahmoud, he had discovered that long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely changed their meanings . . . but short words were slippery, unpredictable, changing their meanings without any pattern. Or so he seemed to grok. Short human words were never like a short Martian word--such as "grok" which forever meant exactly the same thin..
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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176dbdd
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I always get the shakes before a drop.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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bd43eec
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Well, I suppose it did.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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2e8bbd5
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Nope. Gadflies such as yourself are utterly necessary. Nor am I opposed to 'turning the rascals out'--it's usually the soundest rule of politics. But it's well to take a look at what new rascals you are going to get before you jump at any chance to turn your present rascals out.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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221d2b2
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But I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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7881330
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God split himself into a myriad parts that he might have friends. This may not be true, but it sounds good--and is no sillier than any other theology.
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pandeism
theology
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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e0d73e6
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It's not that easy. You can make omelet from eggs, but not eggs from omelet.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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83c1961
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Even Lot might have been mistaken. But that's what he promised 'em - his virgin daughters, young and tender and scared - urged this street gang to rape them as much as they wished in any way that they liked...if only they would leave him in peace!" Jubal snorted in disgust. "And the Bible cites this sort of scum as being a righteous man."
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stranger-in-a-strange-land
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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0bd83a7
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Anywhere is home to the man with a fat bank account--the cops leave him alone.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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60a9358
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I am not a pacifist. Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay--and claims a halo for his dishonesty.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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4ae6f85
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That's what I was trying to find out when we were rushed off on this damned safari. They have unusual intestinal flora and it may have something to do with that. But I think it has to do with the fact that they never stop growing.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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32246e5
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I had never been much interested in Pluto, too few facts and too much isolation.
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motivation
integration
openness
curiosity
teaching
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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2986488
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Engineering is the art of the practical and depends more on the total state of the art than it does on the individual engineer. When railroading time comes you can railroad--but not before.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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b98c798
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The sort of guardian you can hire is worth about as much as the sort of wife you can buy.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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6ff750a
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The capacity of a human mind to believe devoutly in what seems to me to be the highly improbable--from table tapping to the superiority of their own children--has never been plumbed. Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness, but I don't argue with it--especially as I am rarely in a position to prove that it is mistaken. Negative proof is usually impossible.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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58caa0a
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Revolution is an amateur thing for almost everybody;
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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5cfc881
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Big money isn't hard to come by. All it costs is a lifetime of single-minded devotion to acquiring it and making it grow into more money, to the utter exclusion of all other interests.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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ebf9508
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Me, I had never been sure - only thing I was sure of was that Dr. Chan would not himself sit on a target. But he might not warn his old mother.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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0d1e196
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Indian government seemed as furious over fish as fishermen - but principle of sacredness of all life did not apply to us; they wanted our heads.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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0460d24
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Jill, of all the nonsense that twists the world, the concept of 'altruism' is the worst. People do what they want to do, every time.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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8e54397
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I hope he's just a scoundrel . . . because a saint can stir up ten times as much mischief as a scoundrel.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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b86d63c
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But, Jill, if a thing is sinful on Sunday, it is sinful on Friday--at least it groks that way to an outsider, myself--or perhaps to a man from Mars.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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6927b83
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Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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354e81c
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Citizenship is an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part . . . and that the part should be humbly proud to sacrifice itself that the whole may live.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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a0da4f5
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Because revolution--armed uprising--requires not only dissatisfaction but aggressiveness. A revolutionist has to be willing to fight and die--or he's just a parlor pink. If you separate out the aggressive ones and make them the sheep dogs, the sheep will never give you trouble.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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630ef91
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An apostate scientist, a kidnapped scientist, a dull peasant, a two-headed monster, an apple-brained moron -- five knives, counting Joe-Jim as one; five brains, counting Joe-Jim as two and Bobo as none -- five brains and five knives to overthrow an entire culture.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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5a9ebfa
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Some people insist that 'mediocre' is better than 'best.' They delight in clipping wings because they themselves can't fly. They despise brains because they have none. Pfah!
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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ad4b82d
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Just a man, with a face-shaped face,
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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a1053ce
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But it's a hell of a note when you can't even kill a dragon and feel lighthearted afterwards.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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193f2c3
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It's a shock to have it proved to you that you can't resist seducing yourself.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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425cd47
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Oh, "Tanstaafl." Means "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." And isn't,' I added, pointing to a FREE LUNCH sign across room, 'or these drinks would cost half as much. Was reminding her that anything free costs twice as much in long run or turns out worthless."
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tanstaafl
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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59ad6c7
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There wasn't any way to be safe; just being alive was deadly dangerous...fatal, in the end.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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aeecf5b
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But in writing your constitution let me invite attention the wonderful virtues of the negative! Accentuate the negative! Let your document be studded with things the government is forever forbidden to do. No conscript armies . . . no interference however slight with freedom of press, or speech, or travel, or assembly, or of religion, or of instruction, or communication, or occupation. . . no involuntary taxation. Comrades, if you were to sp..
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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1138429
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Never appeal to a man's better nature. He may not have one.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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3baabb3
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A magician is a rule-of-thumb engineer.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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d923035
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Yes, yes, I know they make better pilots than men do; their reactions are faster, and they can tolerate more gee. They can get in faster, get out faster, and thereby improve everybody's chances, yours as well as theirs. But that still doesn't make it fun to be slammed against your spine at ten times your proper weight. But
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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ac03299
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Man is what he is, a wild animal with the will to survive, and (so far) the ability against all competition...The Universe will let us know-later-whether Man has any right to expand through it.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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5ac1a8e
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Library science was the foundation of all sciences.
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reading
literacy
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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4123b13
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Do you speak English?" "Certainly. And I understand American."
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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8c6c420
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Youse guys think this deleted outfit is a blankety-blank nursery. Well, it ain't! See? --Remark attributed to a Hellenic corporal before the walls of Troy, 1194 B.C.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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e9c2104
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there used to be, dirtside, a legal defenses called "diminished capacity" and "not guilty by reason on insanity." These concepts would bewilder a Loonie. In Luna City a man would necessarily be of diminished mental capacity to even think about rape; to carry one out would be the strongest possible proof of insanity - but among Loonies such mental disorders would not gain a rapist any sympathy. loonies do not psychoanalyze a rapist; they kil..
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rape
punishment
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Robert A. Heinlein |