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a9c50bc
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A committee is the only known form of life with a hundred bellies and no brain.
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committees
group-think
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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60da2ab
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Value' has no meaning other than in relation to living beings. The value of a thing is always relative to a particular person, is completely personal and different in quantity for each living human--'market value' is a fiction, merely a rough guess at the average of personal values, all of which must be quantitatively different or trade would be impossible.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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e25cd7f
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Since sovereign franchise is the ultimate in human authority, we insure that all who wield it accept the ultimate in social responsibility--we require each person who wishes to exert control over the state to wager his own life--and lose it, if need be--to save the life of the state. The maximum responsibility a human can accept is thus equated to the ultimate authority a human can exert.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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64861e6
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Young man, can you restore my eyesight?" "Sir? Why, no, sir!" "You would find it much easier than to instill moral virtue--social responsibility--into a person who doesn't have it, doesn't want it, and resents having the burden thrust on him."
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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f551f7f
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My dear, I used to think I was serving humanity . . . and I pleasured in the thought. Then I discovered that humanity does not want to be served; on the contrary it resents any attempt to serve it.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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b3f7075
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Democracy's worst fault is that its leaders are likely to reflect the faults and virtues of their constituents--a depressingly low level, but what else can you expect?
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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6edc7a1
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There's precious little choice." "There's always a choice! This one is a choice between 'bad' and 'worse--'which is a difference much more poignant than that between 'good' and 'better."
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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e701002
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The fact is I am a compulsive reader. Thirty-five cents' worth of Gold Medal Original will put me right to sleep. Or Perry Mason. But I'll read the ads in an old Paris-Match that has been used to wrap herring before I'll do without.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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032801c
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All men must die, it was their single common heritage. But a book need never die and should not be killed; books were the immortal part of man.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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1ba762c
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We always trotted everywhere at Camp Arthur Currie. I never did find out who Currie was, but he must have been a trackman.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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bab2caa
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Can a machine be so frightened and hurt that it will go into catatonia and refuse to respond? While ego crouches inside, aware but never willing to risk it? No, can't be that; Mike was unafraid - as gaily unafraid as Prof.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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b90fd67
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We necessarily sift a great many pebbles, much sand, for each nugget--but the nuggets
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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9fc461f
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Life is short, but the years are long.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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11f7615
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If it has to be done, a man--a real man--shoots his own dog himself; he doesn't
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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2d34aee
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Daddy says that, in a dilemma, it is helpful to change any variable, then reexamine the problem.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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ec3d418
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Sovereign,' like 'love,' means anything you want it to mean; it's a word in dictionary between 'sober' and 'sozzled.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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99aecbb
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the ways of God and government and girls are all mysterious, and it is not given to mortal man to understand them.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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fd4bad2
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Congratulations! A desire not to butt into other people's business is eighty percent of all human wisdom." "You"
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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44ea8bc
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Fact was, little Carmen was so ornamental that you just never thought about her being useful.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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252da6e
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My old man taught me two things: 'Mind own business' and 'Always cut cards'.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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a6d546e
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Let me speak first of the matters I observed as a critic. Your world has several pleasures. There is eating." He reached out and pulled off from its bunch a muscat grape, fat and sugar-sweet, and ate it appreciatively. "An odd one, that. And very remarkable. No one ever before thought of making an art of the simple business of obtaining the necessary energy. Your Artist has very real talent. "And there is sleeping. A strange reflexive busin..
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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3606ff9
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Hate always sells well, but for repeat trade and the long pull happiness is sounder merchandise.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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1b7a056
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I don't gamble, if you will concede that poker is a game of skill.
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poker
skill
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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7d08a0b
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to the everlasting glory of the infantry, shines the name, shines the name of Rodger Young!
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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e8ea644
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You know the classification of cultures into 'Apollonian' and 'Dionysian.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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a15985b
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Man is the animal who laughs,
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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8fd36f2
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I say 'art' advisedly, for art is undefined, undefinable, and without limits. I can use the word without fear of misusing it, for it has no exact meaning. There are as many meanings as there are artists.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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6909bb6
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If change threatens you, you become conservative in self-defense. If it thrills you, you become liberal in self-liberation. He says the Threateneds are frequently more successful in the short run, because they always fight dirty. But in the long run, they always lose, because Thrilled people learn and thus accomplish more.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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bf8141a
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this has more aspects than a cat has hair.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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d48f224
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adult delinquents--people of mature years who either do not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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bf4862a
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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. If it sometimes pains them to make a choice - if the choice turns out to look like a 'noble sacrifice' - you can be sure that it is in no wise nobler than the discomfort caused by greediness . . . the unpleasant necessity of having to decide between two things both of which you would like to do when you can't ..
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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2c8a25e
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Simply because an evil was inescapable was no reason to term it a 'good.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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0475c4f
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I often calculate odds on horse races; the civil service computermen frequently program such requests. But the results are so at variance with expectations that I have concluded either that the data is too meager, or the horses or riders are not honest. Possibly all three.
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humor
horse-race
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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6411c4f
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Any man who would take money two ways would take it three ways just as quickly.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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ecc266a
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Good luck, boys! This time we take 'em!
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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f16a86e
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We used these rifles in field exercises to simulate a lot of deadlier and nastier aimed weapons, too.
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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e448f95
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If I had had any sense, I'd have quit and taken a working job. The only trouble with that would be that I wouldn't have been working for the Old Man any longer. That made the difference. Not that he was a soft boss. He was quite capable of saying, "Boys, we need to fertilize this oak tree. Just jump in that hole at its base and I'll cover you up." We'd have done it. Any of us would. And the Old Man would bury us alive, too, if he thought th..
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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bfef497
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What was "grokking"? He had been using the word for a week--and he didn't grok it."
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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c256735
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Democracy is a poor system; the only thing that can be said for it is that it's eight times as good as any other method. Its worst fault is that its leaders reflect their constituents--a
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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93fd888
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The depths of winter longing are ice within my heart The shards of broken covenants lie sharp against my soul The wraiths of long-lost ecstasy still keep us two apart The amen winds of bitterness sill keen from turn to pole. The scares are twisted tendons, the stumps of struck-off limbs, The aching pit of hunger and throb of unset bone, My sanded burning eyeballs, as might within them dims, Add nothin to the torment of lying here alone... T..
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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39c4565
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There was one field in which man was unsurpassed; he showed unlimited ingenuity in devising bigger and more efficient ways to kill off, enslave, harass, and in all ways make an unbearable nuisance of himself to himself. Man was his own grimmest joke on himself. The very bedrock of humor was-- "Man is the animal who laughs," Jubal answered."
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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c2fde0e
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First, I want your solemn oath not even to talk in your sleep about this job." "If my simple word is not good, is my oath better?"
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word
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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4669ce6
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What distinguishes Buddhism from any other faith I've studied--from most human beings, really--is that the people who face the wall and the people who face away from it have never fought a war over it. They're never going to agree...but they feel no need to. Buddha himself is supposed to have said, "People with opinions just go around bothering each other."
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Robert A. Heinlein |
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165430e
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I told you when you hired him that--" "When I hired him?" "Don't interrupt. --that any man who would take money two ways would take it three ways just as quickly." --
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Robert A. Heinlein |