An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when
one may have to back up his acts with his life.
Robert A. Heinlein, "Beyond This Horizon", 1942
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"No need to count them," Lazarus replied~ "True
or false, such cases are irrelevant. The relevant counterpoint
is 'minimum stimuli.' Honey, those big computers with awareness
potential but without self-awareness are that way because
nobody bothered to love the poor things. That's all. Babies
or big computers-they become aware through being given lots
of personal attention.
'Love' as it's usually called."
Lazarus Long
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For there is another bad thing about slavery, ha; it is impossible
to free slaves, they have to free themselves.
Lazarus Long
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Kissing girls is a goodness. It beats
the hell out of card games.
Valentine Michael Smith - Stranger in a Strange Land
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An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman
she will become. A better artist can
look at an old woman and see the pretty girl she used to be.
A GREAT artist can look at an old woman, portray her exactly
as she is, and force the viewer to se the pretty girl she
used to be, more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity
of an armadillo see that this lovely young girl is still alive,
prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel
the quiet endless tragedy that there was never a girl born
who ever grew older that eighteen in her heart.
Jubal - Stranger In A Strange Land
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He found both butterflies and women
tremendously interesting - in fact, all the grokking world
around him was enchanting and he wanted to drink so deep of
it all that his own grokking would be perfect.
Description of Mike in Stranger in a Strange Land
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Look, friends, the only possible way to enjoy life is not
to be afraid to die. A zest for living requires a willingness
to die; you cannot have the first without the second. The
'60s and '70s and '80s and '90s can be loaded with the zest
for living, high excitement, and gutsy adventure for any truly
human person. Truly human? I mean you descendants of cavemen
who outlasted the saber-tooth, you who sprang from the loins
of the Vikings, you whose ancestors fought the Crusades and
were numbered the Golden Horde. Death is the lot of all of
us and the only way the human race has ever conquered death
is by treating it with contempt. By
living every golden minute as if one had all eternity.
Heinlein, Guest of Honor Speech at the XIXth World Science
Fiction Convention
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Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done,
and why. Then do it.
Lazarus Long - Time Enough for Love
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A human being should be able to change
a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design
a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall,
set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate,
act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure,
program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently,
die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Lazarus Long - Time Enough For Love
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A man does not insist on physical beauty in a woman who builds
up his morale. After a while he realizes that she is beautiful
-- he just hadn't noticed it at first.
Lazarus Long
|
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors
-- and miss.
Lazarus Long
|
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Do not confuse "duty" with what other people
expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt
you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed
voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years
of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it
may be, but the reward is self-respect.
But there is no reward at all for doing what other people
expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible.
It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech
who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please -- this
won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes
of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall
into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball
to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent
of your time -- and squawk for more! So learn to say No --
and be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not
have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work,
and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites
will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. (This
rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend,
or even for a stranger. But let the
choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)
Lazarus Long
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If "everybody knows" such-and-such, then it ain't so, by at
least ten thousand to one.
Lazarus Long
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If the universe has any purpose more important than topping
a woman you love and making a baby with her hearty help, I've
never heard of it.
Lazarus Long
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It is impossible for a man to love his wife wholeheartedly
without loving all women somewhat. I suppose that the converse
must be true of women.
Lazarus Long
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Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to
themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled
child.
Lazarus Long
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One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural"
is a null word.
Lazarus Long
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The phrase "we (I) (you) simply must
--" designates something that need not be done. "That goes
without saying" is a red warning. "Of course" means you had
best check it yourself. These small-change cliches and others
like them, when read correctly, are reliable channel markers.
Lazarus Long
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The second most preposterous notion is that copulation is
inherently sinful.
Lazarus Long
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To stay young requires unceasing cultivation
of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.
Lazarus Long
|
History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that
has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not
strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But,
like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time
and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from
fiddling with it.
Lazarus Long
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Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated
out of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing---with "obscenity"
and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for the second and
third place.
Lazarus Long
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One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.
Lazarus Long
|
The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed
up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all
the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures,
can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He
does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, withou
a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of
the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all
history.
Lazarus Long
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